I first met Nelson three years ago while I was on assignment writing stories about youth in Tanzania and Rwanda. When I met him, Nelson was working for a hotel in Musanze, in the Northern part of Rwanda, not far from the gorilla sights where tourists from all over the world flood to catch a glimpse of the magnificent mountain gorillas.

Nelson is an orphan of the 1994 genocide, one of many in Rwanda. He is from the town of Gyseni, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). His town is so close to the DRC that you can literally walk across the border on foot.

When I met Nelson he was barely 18 years old.

Nelson’s mom died in the early 90s when insecurity in Rwanda was extremely volatile. His father, as far as I know, died during the genocide. Single handedly, Nelson takes care of his grandma and four young children, all belonging to his sisters who also perished during the 1994 genocide.

I had interviewed Nelson for a story I was doing. He was enrolled in a training program that gave young people the opportunity to work in different sectors and to be trained. He struck me as extremely bright, shy and incredibly gentle. I was not mistaken.

We stayed in touch for a few months via email and I soon realized that he desperately wanted to continue his secondary education. He had to drop out because he could not afford the school fees. This happens a lot to bright young men and women across Africa. Talent wasted due to poverty and basic priorities like food and shelter. So I decided to commit and to pay for his yearly school fees. With the help of a local colleague I had met during that assignment, we enrolled Nelson in a technical school in Kigali.

Initially, I went through Jean de Dieux, my Rwandese colleague, to make sure that school fees were paid and that Nelson did in fact attend school. Slowly, Jean de Dieux, became less relevant in the relationship with Nelson. Eventually he left Rwanda all together to go study medicine in Nigeria. In order for me to honor my original commitment, I had to now get more involved with this young Rwandan man.

When I first met Nelson he only spoke French and Kinyarwanda, of course. Now he is practically fluent in English. This is partially due to President Kagame’s push to propel Rwanda into the Anglophone world, especially since Rwanda recently joined the British Commonwealth, a strategic move that has nothing to do with colonial history: Rwanda was colonized by the Germans and the Belgians. The second reason why he speaks such good English is because of our friendship. I speak French too but Nelson is keen on learning English and communicating with me in this language.

Now I meet up with Nelson every time I go to Kigali. As a matter of fact, I look forward to meeting him, hearing how school is going, finding out whether he went to see his grandma and the children. He usually brings me his report cards and once he took me to meet all his teachers and the school head master. Every time we meet I learn something more about this bright young man, his country and the plight of orphaned children who have to shoulder responsibilities that go well beyond their age.

On a recent trip to Rwanda, I gave Nelson a bunch of books in English that I brought from Nairobi. I gave him a book by Chimananda Ngozi, the accomplished Nigerian female writer, one book written by the Dali Lama, a book entitled What is the What on the lost boys of South Sudan and a fiction book on Botswana, the Number One Detective Agency. I told Nelson that he must learn to read about the world and to expand his horizons beyond Rwanda. I recently heard from him. His favorite book so far is the one written by the Dalai Lama: The Art of Happiness.