Chris, 13 years old; and Serge, 16 years old, from Burundi

Full transcript of Chirs+Serge's story

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Other testimonies:
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Ishmael
Mohamed
Jelena
Aida
Didi
Dino

Chris: We used to hear guns in our town, but we used to hide.

Raeshma: So how long did you hide.

Sumitra: So you would only go into the basement if you heard some gun shots because of some fighting?

Serge: Yeah, it was just a hiding place.

Sumitra: But otherwise, were you able to go out and get food? What was your life like?

Serge: It wasn’t good like that. But sometimes some days we were hungry. Some days the war was serious and the war was for real and we couldn’t go out. For a whole day. Sometimes the war was like that and then five hours later… But life wasn’t good; it wasn’t nice for us.

Raeshma: How? Can you describe it?

Serge: We were like hungry. It was very scary for us. We were scared to go outside. They keep us in the basement.

Raeshma: School?

Serge: No. School was over.

Raeshma: What did you do all day?

Serge: We just slept. We was like praying in the basement. We think that maybe God couldhelp us.