The least of these . . . even more so

In Dieudonne’s small apartment in Altona, Man., there is a colourful menagerie of crocheted animals: elephants, frogs and cats. He sells them for $15 each because crocheting is one of his few options for a livelihood. He is paralyzed below the waist.

Dieudonne, 40, is an immigrant from Burundi, a small country in central Africa and one of the five poorest nations in the world. He was sponsored to come to Altona by the Build a Village organization, which partners with Mennonite Central Committee in bringing refugees to Canada.

Darlene Enns-Dyck is a member of the organization, and also the pastor of Dieudonne’s home church, Seeds of Life Community Church, a Mennonite Church Manitoba congregation of about 150. She recalls the process to bring Dieudonne to Canada as being difficult.

“We were asked many times, ‘Are you sure? Do you have the community support?’ ” she says, “but we really needed to step into this.”

She points to a Bible verse from Matthew that guides the organization: “What you did for the least of these, you did for me.”

“Dieudonne is the least of these, even more so,” she says. “We were sure God would come alongside him.”

Dieudonne grew up on his parents’ farm in Burundi, never going to school. After he left home at the age of 18, he was imprisoned by the government for eight years during ethnic violence in the early 1990s. He felt fortunate to be imprisoned.

“If you were in jail and you didn’t do anything wrong, you were fine,” he says, adding with a chuckle, “I washed clothes for the rich. Rich people can’t wash their clothes themselves.”

He was released from prison in 2002, but he didn’t return to his family.

“I haven’t seen my parents since I left home,” he says without remorse. “They don’t think about me.”

He does not talk about his father. His friend Marlous Fehr explains how Dieudonne’s father was murdered when his neighbour poisoned him last year.

Dieudonne was in a refugee camp in Tanzania when he was paralyzed. He climbed a tree to get firewood, but fell out of the tree, landing on his neck. He was rushed to a hospital, which became his home for six years.

“I wanted to do something,” he says of learning to crochet. “I decided to find a way to use my hands.”

It was a result of his paralysis that he came to Canada.

“The doctor asked me if I want to go to Canada, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” says Dieudonne. “I didn’t plan anything.”

Fehr explains that the doctors said, “Go to Canada. They can help”.

Dieudonne tells about receiving his first winter clothing when he arrived in Canada from the refugee camp in Tanzania. “They gave me a big jacket and a big hat,” he recalls. “They tried to put boots on, but my feet didn’t work.”

He has been in Canada now for five years, and the doctors have told him that they can’t cure his paralysis.

“All he wanted was to fix his back,” says Fehr. “We can just bring him food and play games. We’re not doctors.”

“He’s had to deal with some dashed hopes,” Enns-Dyck acknowledges.

However, Dieudonne hasn’t given up on a cure. During our interview, he displays a new business card that he acquired for a spine specialist in Germany. “I am going to walk soon,” he says with a huge grin on his face.

Dieudonne has had a positive impact on those around him since he arrived in Altona.

“It’s been fun to watch him experience new things,” says Enns-Dyck. “He likes to eat with people and throw parties. He has been an incredible blessing to the community. I’m glad we took the plunge.” l

The Voice of the Voiceless articles were written for Canadian Mennonite University’s Journalism: Practices and Principles course during the Winter 2013 semester. Teacher Carl DeGurse is vice-chair of Canadian Mennonite’s board of directors and assist-ant city editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.