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Marcienne


I found myself when I found these people. I understood what it truly means to be human, to be connected and to love someone purely because of their existence. They’ve allowed me to wake up every single morning and ask myself what’s really important. From a country of complete conflict, hate, discrimination and violence where in the space of 100 days, one million people were violently slaughtered due to their ethnicity, I now see a country functioning on nothing but love, hope and respect for each other with the primary focus of creating a pathway to societal progress which fundamentally functions based on community.

Four years ago I was fortunate enough to meet a 90 year old woman named Marcienne, who in 1994 witnessed the slaughter of five of her children and the love of her life. Along with thousands of people still living with the trauma of the genocide today, she has nothing but love to give. Imagine walking into a community to be greeted by groups of people just thankful for your presence, into a community which is nothing but a safe space filled with smiles and appreciation for each other’s existence.  We spend a lot of our time looking for something, working towards a career, paying the bills, you know the usual ‘adult’ lifestyle yet when do we spend time really working towards creating something bigger than materialistic goals? When do we allow ourselves to just have a conversation? To get to know a person, not just the facts but the reasoning behind why they view things the way they do?

Meeting Marcienne really changed my outlook on life, we were sat in the middle of this field under a bunch of trees up against a pile of rocks and she explained that the rock I was sat up against was where she watched the murderer of her husband sharpen his machete, and how she watched him kill what she describes as her ‘soulmate’ underneath the trees. After bravely sharing her story, she was the one to comfort myself and others. She believes in the power of people, the power of forgiveness and the power of complete hope. She believes and treats every person she meets like her own family, not to replace, not to forget but to understand that peoples ‘Ubuntu’ is what links us to each other. To be alive, is to be human, to be alive is to love.

I believe I’ve been very fortunate, to having my perspective changed on the importance of people within my life whether that’s on a friendship or relationship basis to give nothing but everything I can without the sacrifice of myself. For letting me accept that wearing your heart on your sleeve isn’t a weakness, yet strength, to only accept the love that you deserve and you receive.  To the woman who touched my heart with nothing but her humanity, thank you
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