New Peace and New Purpose | Menedore’s Story
This month we celebrate International Women’s Day by sharing Menedore’s journey of finding new peace and new purpose…
Raising five daughters in a refugee camp wasn’t easy. Ever since 1993, when war forced them to flee their home in Burundi, Menedore Mukeshimana and her husband had been living in Tanzania.
But when Menedore’s husband passed away, she was left to care for her daughters alone.
Still grieving, Menedore moved back to Burundi. But as a widow with no steady income and few relationships after years away, feeding her daughters was nearly impossible.
“I was afraid that my children would die of hunger,” Menedore shares.
Desperate to get food on the table, Menedore turned to the only option she could come up with: earning money through prostitution. While this kept her family alive, it crushed her spirit. “I lived a chaotic life, and I was miserable,” she says.
NO LONGER ALONE
Yet God was faithful to Menedore. In 2020, a neighbor invited her to join the Dukore Dusenga (“let’s work and pray”) savings group. Initially, she was too discouraged to accept, but a second invitation shifted something in Menedore’s spirit. She resolved to give it a try.
Menedore stepped into her first meeting bracing for rejection. “I couldn’t believe that I would be well received,” she says. “I went to the meeting dressed in rags, with a lot of shame. I sat so far behind in the corner.”
Then, the group did something Menedore didn’t expect. “They called me to sit with them.”
For the first time in a long while, Menedore felt like she belonged.
A LIFE-GIVING BUSINESS
With her new friends, Menedore started to save, just $2–5 (U.S.) a week at first.
Her first $10 (U.S.) loan allowed her to purchase vegetables, bananas, and avocados to resell. She easily repaid the loan with her profits, and her business ventures flourished as she continued to save and borrow. Eventually, she bought three plots of land to plant cassava, maize, and more.
As her farm grew, so did Menedore’s ability to provide for her family.
“Before … we ate once a day, but now we can eat three times. Now, my children go to school, and I pay their school fees without difficulties. I have been able to build a new house,” she shares.
TRANSFORMATION IN ACTION
After hearing the Word of God through her group, Menedore says, “I received Jesus as Lord and Savior.”
Today, she serves as a spiritual leader in her family, church, and community. She prays and worships with her daughters in the evenings and even gifted her previous home to a neighbor facing homelessness.
Menedore now shares her story to help others experience new life in Christ. “I knew what poverty really is,” she says. “That’s what pushed me to help others.”
