Murhabazi has made many enemies during his struggle to help the thousands of children being exploited and tortured in war-torn DR Congo.
   “I’m prepared to die in the fight for children’s rights, every day,” says Murhabazi Namegabe.

Murhabazi hadn’t even been born when he received his first death threat. War was raging in Bukavu in eastern Congo in 1964, and his pregnant mother Julienne fled along the narrow lanes. A soldier pressed the barrel of his rifle against her pregnant belly, but one of the leaders shouted: “Don't kill her! Let her go!”
   Two weeks later Murhabazi was born. In the language Mashi his name means both ‘One who was born in war’ and ‘One who helps others’.
   “My mother always says that I was predestined to devote my life to protecting vulnerable people.”

Everyone should have food!

Murhabazi grew up in one of the poorest districts of Bukavu. But since his father had a job, the family always had food and the children could go to school.
   “A lot of my friends were always hungry and couldn't afford to go to school. I thought that was unfair. Every day, hungry children gathered outside our house when we were about to eat. I thought that the children should be allowed to sit with us and eat and told my mother that I refused to eat as long as things remained as they were!”
   Murhabazi talked to his school friends and together they began to campaign on behalf of the hungry children in the district. Every afternoon they went around singing songs about how adults needed to take care of all children. The children explained that they planned to go on a hunger strike until the poorest children in the neighbourhood were welcome at their table.
   “Soon there were over seventy of us demonstrating every day after school!”
   In the end the hungry children got to eat dinner together with families that had enough food to share!

The rights of the child

The children carried on demonstrating, this time to encourage parents and teachers to stop hitting children, and for the right of every child to go to school. The older Murhabazi became, the more problems he saw for children in DR Congo. He knew that children needed adults to take up their cause, and that he himself needed more knowledge if he was to be able to help children properly. So he studied child development and health at university.
   On 20 November 1989 Murhabazi listened to the news on the radio. The newsreader announced that the UN had adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention stated that all children around the world were entitled to a good life. The newsreader also said that every country that signed up to the Convention would have to consider children’s best interests in all decisions.
   “I was so happy. I organised a meeting at my house where we decided that we would do everything in our power to get the government of DR Congo to sign up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

BVES

Murhabazi’s group called itself BVES (Bureau pour le Volontariat au Service de l’Enfance et de la Santé, Bureau for Volunteer Service for Children and Health). They started examining the situation faced by children in DR Congo.
   “We often hiked for several days through the rainforest to reach remote villages. At night we slept in the trees to avoid leopards and other dangerous animals.” Murhabazi and BVES started to compile facts about the lives of children in the villages of DR Congo. Terrible facts.
   “When we reported our results to the government, they weren’t happy at all. If anyone said anything negative about the country, like that children were suffering here, it was seen as an attack on the government. If we didn’t stop, we would end up in prison.”

Street children

Murhabazi started speaking on the radio once a week, so that everyone would hear about the Convention on the Rights of the Child and what life was like for children in DR Congo. Every time, he repeated his demand that the government sign up to the Convention.
   “The streets of Bukavu were filled with children who had no one to look after them. Their parents were either poor or had died of AIDS. Many people referred to these children as ‘dogs’, but we said that they needed protection and love. In 1994 we opened our first home for street children.”

Child soldiers

“We thought we’d seen the worst, but then the war started and life for all children here became pure hell,” says Murhabazi.
   In 1996, Bukavu was invaded by various Congolese rebel armies with the support of Rwanda. Children were directly targeted during the war that followed.
   “The fighters destroyed our three homes for refugee children. I had managed to hide the children in time, but my first colleague and friend was killed.” All the groups that were fighting, including DR Congo’s army, were kidnapping boys and forcing them to become soldiers, and abducting girls to use them as sex slaves.
   “Of course I had experience of looking after tough boys who had lived on the streets before, but child soldiers were a completely different matter. Young boys aged about ten who were on drugs, wearing uniforms and carrying huge weapons. They had been completely destroyed by adults. I wanted to do everything I could to save them,” explains Murhabazi.