Building a family from worlds apart

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/11/2015 (3620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are many kinds of families — some you’re born into and then there’s the ones you create along the way.

That’s exactly the feeling Julie Epp had when she visited Rwanda as part of a volunteer trip and first met Claude Hashakimana, a 19-year-old Rwandan student.

Epp and Hashakimana became close during Epp’s second trip to Rwanda in 2013, when Hashakimana had progressed in his English skills.

“When I first came back in 2013, Claude came up to me and the first thing he said was, ‘I remember you,’” Wolseley resident Epp said. “He said, ‘We didn’t think you’d be back’ … so it meant a lot to him and within a couple days of meeting me, he started calling me ‘mom,’ which is not atypical of kids with older women that they respect.”

But Epp, 39, quickly realized that the relationship between herself and Hashakimana did feel more like a mother-son one than anything else. The two felt like they were with family soon after getting to know one another, and Epp is working towards hosting Hashakimana in Winnipeg while he attends school. She said that in the future, adoption is something both of them would like to consider.

“He and I have talked about this a lot, like why did you pick me as your mom, why did you pick me as your son,” Epp said. “And I’ve always said, I could feel his heart, I could sense that we were the same, and there was something… it didn’t feel like a choice that he was my son, it just felt like he was.”

Hashakimana lost his mother, father and little brother when he was only four, which led him to live on the streets and in orphanages throughout his childhood. As a result, he doesn’t have a birth certificate or know when he was born. It has made applications to travel especially challenging — the most recent application was denied. 

“I will try to follow up with my MP, the Canadian Consulate, the local Rwandan community for other options and possibly apply first for a visitor visa for him to come over Christmas to establish a travel history,” Epp said. “I am stubborn and determined and have a fierce motherly love motivating me. This isn’t over.”

To raise money for his travel expenses and tuition, Epp has organized a concert on Nov. 16 at the West End Cultural Centre (586 Ellice Ave.). The lineup features Bold as Lions, Keith Macpherson, Sheena Grobb and Elessar Thiessen.

“A lot of my friends and community are musicians and I’ve always been connected to that,” Epp said. “I did two benefits at the Park Theatre… the musicians were always super supportive and it helped raise a lot of money and it’s been great… once we got the passport and got the visa application in, I was like, I need money way faster, I needed to do something bigger.”

One of the things that Epp and Hashakimana bonded over while Epp visited was their love of photography, which is something Hashakimana hopes to pursue in Winnipeg.

“One of the things we did in Rwanda, when we went, we brought donations of cameras so we were showing kids some stuff,” she said. “The older kids that were going into schools and tourism programs, they got to keep their own cameras and Claude was one of them… he sends photos all the time.”

Concert for Claude takes place at the WECC on Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. (doors at 7:15 p.m.). Tickets are $15 and are available at the door or at Music Trader. Charitable donations will be accepted by Green Kids Inc. on the night of the event or online at www.greenkids.com/helpus.html.