By Victor Omondi
According to People, five children in Iowa are now without both parents after their father perished in a car accident just months after their mother died.
Bazirake Kariya, 30, died four months after his wife, Zabayo Bigirimana. KCCI reported that Bigirimana died in August while giving birth to their newborn daughter, leaving behind her husband, four sons, and a new infant.
According to the Des Moines Register, Kariya died in an automobile accident on New Year’s Eve. He was driving on a highway in Marshall County on his way to work in Marshalltown.
On the day of Kariya’s accident, the roads had become slick owing to freezing rain. Rescuers discovered Kariya and rescued him from the vehicle, but he died of his injuries.
Kariya’s family arrived in Des Moines two years ago, as refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Senior pastor Eugene Kiruhura of Shalom Covenant Church says he’s known the family for almost a year.
In a statement to WHO-13 Kiruhura said the youngsters are taking it “extremely hard.”
“They’ve been crying all the time, saying, ‘We lost mother. We lost father,’” he stated.
In addition to the couple’s newborn daughter, Kariya’s parents, who do not speak English and are unemployed, are raising their four sons, aged 2 to 10.
Kiruhura started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the five children and to pay for their father’s funeral.
“We are raising funds to help assist with his funeral expenses and any extra funds will go into an account reserved for the children,” Kiruhura wrote on the page. “Keep these children in your prayers this is very sudden and extremely shocking for them to lose both parents like this in a short period of time. I’m believing in God, that’s why I’m asking people, please, please help these kids.”
The goal of $200,000 has already been surpassed.
The pastor expresses his gratitude to everyone who has aided the family thus far.
“Thank you all so much for the overwhelming support given in such a short period of time,” he said in an update on Jan. 2 that featured a picture of the kids. “God Bless you!!”