Josephine and her twin sister Jocelyne are glad to share their story because they feel that it could help someone else. They wouldn't be the same today without their painful experiences. They learned that every life struggle is an opportunity to change and grow.

In 1994 the genocide in Rwanda affected our lives tremendously. A group of extremists Hutu were trying  to wipe out all Tutsi.  Close to a million people were murdered including some in our family.  My aunt, a Tutsi, was married to a Hutu and had 9 children, because the children were not "pure blood” they were murdered along with their mother.  This was the same aunt we would spend two months with every summer.  It was a regular thing to hear gunshots and walk by dead people on the streets.  As a teenager, it was very difficult to go anywhere. On our way we would carefully have to walk over fresh corpses, watch people burning with tires on their heads etc...  There was one time when we were going to a band practice that we got on the wrong bus. This bus was full of Hutu and they wanted to kill us.  They threatened to throw us in a big tank of hot oil where other Tutsi were killed. When they saw us with our Bible's, they let us go. It was because of God that we were saved. Days later, people would come to mom offering their condolences. Our testimony helped a lot people and gave them encouragement.

Josephine created the Shelter Them Poverty Relief in 2006 as a not for profit organization to help the citizens of Rwanda rebuild their lives.