At age 5, Jean Simon and his parents were coming from Bas Congo to Kinshasa when they were involved in a car accident. Jean Simon’s parents did not survive the accident.

“I remember seeing many dead bodies. I saw them taking my father’s body and putting it in a truck,” he said, his voice breaking up. “They took my mother’s body and put it in the truck, and I started crying.”

Jean Simon was very courageous in recounting his horrific story to us. A truck driver took him to Kinshasa and abandoned him. Jean Simon discovered a new life, very different from what he was used to in the village. He became a street child.

“I was spending the night under a police station,” he said.

During the day Jean Simon would beg and steal like every other street child in order to survive. An older street child took pity on him and took care of him as if he were a brother. The older child was taken to a shelter and told them about Jean Simon. Jean Simon was then taken to the shelter too. He stayed there for a little while and then was transferred to another center.

Jean Simon has epilepsy and soon began having more and more seizures. One day while he was playing with his friends he had a seizure and fell on a pot of boiling beans. That event changed his life. He was severely burned and could not stretch his leg anymore.

Thanks to generous friends, Jean Simon walks today. He lives in an orphanage run by Helene Alemusuey.