'It was my dearest dream': Congolese teen reunited with mother after 14 years apart
During a nighttime attack, Maria Musenga was forced to leave her toddler behind
Naomie Bisimwa never forgot her mother's face, even though she was just a toddler when they were torn apart by a Congolese war 14 years ago.
At Toronto's Pearson airport earlier this month, mother and daughter finally locked eyes before a long, tearful embrace.
"I was very happy to see my mom again. It was my dearest dream," said Naomie, now 16, speaking in French.
The teen doesn't remember the night in 2004 when her home in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, was ravaged by fire and gunfire that killed her father and forced her mother to flee with her three older siblings.
"You start to go, you don't know if you have the children behind you. If you see behind you, they gonna kill you," said Maria Musenga, 40. She couldn't find Naomie, then just a toddler.
I wanted to be able to go run and kiss my mom, but … I couldn't run, because I was paralyzed.- Naomie Bisimwa
"No food, no clothes, no water, nothing. You need to save yourself."
"I think she [was] dead."
Musenga took sanctuary in a church that night, then relocated to neighbouring Uganda with the three other children. In 2009, Karin Gordon of Hospitality House in Winnipeg heard of the family's struggles through Musenga's brother, who had come as a refugee to Canada years before. The family was living in poverty in Uganda, without any belongings of their own.
Gordon privately applied to sponsor Musenga and her children to come to Canada.
During the immigration application process, Musenga learned from other refugees that Naomie was alive, and living with another family.
She put her daughter's name on her immigration application under the one-year window, but had no other information about the child.
"She actually wound up meeting somebody from her home village, who told her that the child had not been killed, had been taken away by a mutual neighbour to Kinshasa, which is about 500 or 600 kilometres to the north, and Maria had fled south," said Gordon of Hospitality House.
Musenga and her three other children arrived in Winnipeg from Uganda in 2013. Naomie remained in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tough life in Africa
"It was not good. Her life was bad in Africa. Very bad," said Musenga.
Musenga tracked down the contact information of the family that her daughter was with through another refugee in Winnipeg, and the two began to regularly speak on the phone. Musenga sent money to the families housing her daughter, but says Naomie rarely received it.
When she spoke to her mother on the phone, she had no privacy, she said.
"They were a little bit mean. I was like a handmaiden for them," said Naomie.
We told her to sit and not to do anything, we're going to do everything for you.- Maria Musenga
She said she was passed from home to home, family to family, working as a servant: cleaning, washing dishes and preparing food and meals.
Then, Naomie got sick with tuberculosis requiring her to be hospitalized. Following that, she suffered a stroke-like injury that paralyzed her arm, and partially her leg, and affected her vision on her left side.
Again, she went to the hospital, but says she didn't get followup care for the paralysis.
"I just wanted to see my mom again," she said of that time, as tears rolled down her face.
She needed further medical attention, but her journey to Canada was held up because the government needed proof of her identity.
According to Gordon, it took two years of bureaucracy with Canada's immigration agency and to find a doctor who would do the genetic test to prove she was Musenga's daughter.
Watch Gordon explain the long process:
Despite knowing about all the health challenges Naomie faced, Musenga wasn't expecting to see her daughter in a wheelchair when she exited the plane in Toronto.
"I was feeling heavy in my heart ... I think too much about her. It's OK, because she's still alive," said Musenga.
Recovery ahead
Naomie said when she saw her mother for the first time in Toronto, "I had a lot of emotions. I wanted to be able to go run and kiss my mom, but there was no way, I couldn't run, because I was paralyzed."
It had been five painful years from the time Musenga applied for the reunification. Naomie will now need medical attention, rehabilitation and education. She hopes to become a doctor one day.
Since arriving in Winnipeg, Naomie has not left the house and spends her time with the siblings she lost long ago.
"They need to be with her to show her love; forget Africa," said Musenga.
"We told her to sit and not to do anything, we're going to do everything for you," she added.
Musenga still owes $1,800 out of the $9,000 travel loan she got from the Canadian government for her family to come to Canada. She works long hours as a housekeeper at a hotel to provide for her family; they live in a small Manitoba Housing townhouse.
"I need to work hard to prepare for a future for Naomie and the other children," she said. But she is hopeful that Canadians might also help them.
She also knows her problems are not unique. Many other refugee families have suffered and have been torn apart; Gordon says her agency has about 200 families who have been waiting since 2011 to immigrate to Canada under private sponsorship. To the people waiting to come to Canada, Musenga says "be patient."
"[Naomie's] process took five years … now I'm happy. I thank Canada and all people here," she said.
"This is my country now."
Watch Naomie share the importance of reuniting with her mom:
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With files from Zoe Clin