My native country is Burundi, but because of ethnic discrimination I grew up as a refugee in Congo. When war started in Congo, it was through miracles that I escaped death, starvation and homelessness and came to the U.S. I am a citizen for the first time in my life. I can say ‘God Bless America’ and this is a miracle.
I have faced all kinds of challenges, and this is what I know: Hope, Hope, Hope. It is hope that has kept me alive and strong enough to face my challenges. When we have hope, nothing is impossible.
I want to tell you a story that I have remembered so many times in my life. It is a story about my mother. One day, as my mom was returning home from the market, she saw a group of small children standing around a ditch. She went to the children just in time to see a 2-year-old girl fight for her life – she was drowning in muddy, dirty sewer water that runs in deep ditches by the road. She put her basket of food down, not worrying about who might steal it. She only wanted to save the small child. My mother picked up the drowning child and did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, not caring at all about the dirty sewer water the child had swallowed or the smell. She sucked everything out of the mouth of the little girl and then took the child to the clinic for treatment. The child was saved. When my mother returned to the place where she had left her basket, no one had stolen the food she had purchased to make lunch for her own children.
From this story, which I have carried with me all of my life, I have learned that to be a hero we need Love and Hope. We must look forward – not back. Whenever we want to make a change in our own life or help someone, we only have to set aside our basket: our basket of burdens, of bad memories, of deception, of doubts, our basket of depression.
Training Futures is a miracle in my life. This program has given me so many important skills.
But there is so much more.
When I came to Training Futures, my cup was half empty. As soon as I started the program, the same cup was filled with love, dignity, security, home and hope as well as the business skills needed to succeed in a job that can support my family. Training Futures tells us to put our basket of burdens down and step forward. We can create our future.
I tell everyone this.
One day, after I graduated from the Training Futures program, I returned for some advice. A trainee came up to me and said she wanted to share her sandwich with me. “You might not remember me,” she said. “But you saved me.”
Of course, I wanted to know how. This is what she told me. “I met you on the bus when I was new to the U.S. and you told me to call Training Futures’ number. Some days, I may forget my name, but I will never forget this number. It is a miracle number.”
So I ask all of you to tell people you know who need help and hope and skills. Tell people who want to volunteer. Tell businesses that want to support the program and hire people who understand how to face challenges.
Tell them to call Training Futures. It’s a miracle program and a miracle number.
