Eng Maggy Barankitse

NOMINEE • Pages 36–40

Maggy Barankitse Why is Maggy a nominee?

Maggy Barankitse has been nominated as WCPRC Decade Child Rights Hero 2009 for her over 15-year struggle to help children in Burundi, where armed conflict continues to take place.

Maggy has directly saved the lives of 25 children and helped over 10,000 children to a better life. She builds villages of 500 houses where orphaned children can grow up in ‘families’.

They receive food, clothing, medical care, schooling, homes and love! Maggy helps children from all the people groups and religions of the country, teaching them that they are all equal.

She also helps poor children in neighbouring villages, and shows that people in Burundi can help one another. All 30,000 people who live in and around Maggy’s villages are offered medical care at the hospital she has had built. Maggy takes risks when she points out that Burundi’s politicians, army and rebels violate children’s rights.

Maggy Barankitse and 7-yearold Dieudonné hug each other.

Dieudonné is one of the many children in Burundi that Maggy has helped to a better life. It began when she saved the lives of 25 children during the civil war in 1993. Since then, she has helped over 10,000 children. They have received food, clothing, medical care, a home, the chance to go to school and… love!

D

ieudonné is a lively boy, but his face bears the scars of war. When Maggy found him, four months old, his face was badly injured by the grenade that had killed his mother. Maggy worked at the Bishop’s Manor in Ruyigi when the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples broke out.

“I helped people from both groups to find shelter at the Bishop’s Manor.

But we were attacked by hundreds of Tutsis. They beat me and kicked me, but they let me live because I’m a Tutsi.”

“I managed to hide 25 children, but when the attack was over all the children had lost their parents. Because I lost my parents when I was little, I know how important it is for a child to feel safe and loved. I decided to take care of the children myself,” says Maggy.

The war in Burundi killed around 300,000 people, many of them children. There are 620,000 orphaned children as a result of war and AIDS.

“Children have been kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers, others have been forced to quit school since their fees are no longer paid for. Over half of the children in Burundi do not go to school. Many end up on the streets, where they have to beg to survive and risk being exploited. But the politicians continue to invest in weapons, not in children,” says Maggy.

House of Peace Maggy and the children moved into an old school that they renamed ‘Maison Shalom’, the House of Peace.

The children belong to all of the people groups and religions in Burundi. Maggy teaches them that they are all equal.

“I want to show the people of Burundi that it’s possible to live together in peace.”

At first, there was only the orphanage at Maison Shalom, but Maggy didn’t want the children to grow up in an orphanage.

“That’s why I built villages of 500 small houses where the children can live in small families. There are a couple of ‘village mothers’ in every

village. The children learn to manage a household, grow vegetables and tend livestock, but most importantly they learn that they belong to a family that loves them.

The things the children learn in the villages will help them manage when they move away one day.”

Maggy has set up a bakery, a dressmaker’s workshop, a small guesthouse and a farm. There, the children who have completed school can work to support themselves and their ‘families’.

Maggy’s struggle for the children in Burundi is often dangerous. She has searched for abandoned and wounded children in conflict areas. She has been put on trial several times, and many people have threatened to kill her because she tells the truth about the way politicians, the army and the rebels violate the rights of the child.

“My dream is to be able to close Maison Shalom one day, and see to it that every child in Burundi has a family to live with. But more children come to us every day, and we will be here as long as there are children who need our help and our love.” 

36

36-40_Maggi_Burundi_sve,eng,fra.indd 36

09-02-26 09.25.49

“Maggy is my mum and my gran”

e

It was 1993, and Justine’s family had sought shelter with Maggy. But one morning, the Bishop’s Manor was attacked by hundreds of armed men.

H

“

urry up! You can hide in here,” Maggy shouted.

She opened the empty cupboard and Justine and her three little sisters squeezed in as fast as they could.

When Maggy closed the door, Justine was terrified.

She heard gunfire and people screaming. She thought about the rest of the family.

Where were her mum and dad? And her little brother?

After several hours Maggy opened the cupboard door.

Justine saw that she was crying.

“It’s over… but your parents didn’t make it. Your little sister is also dead. I’m sorry about everything that’s happened, but I promise I’ll take care of you now,” she whispered.

“Maggy took care of me and my sisters. She made sure that we could continue school, but most of all, she gave us love. I think it’s because of her love that we could get through all those awful things. I see Maggy as my mum, my dad, my gran... she’s everything to me!” says Justine.

“I want to be like Maggy and help other children who are suffering. The most important thing Maggy has taught me is to forgive. The men who murdered my parents and my little sister live just a few houses away. At first I always wanted revenge. But one day they came and asked for my for-

Justine and her little brother Claude, who also survived the attack.

giveness. They cried and said they regretted what they’d done. It was hard, but I forgave them. After that day, I could finally get on with my life.” 

Maison Shalom began with Lysette and Lydia “Before Lysette’s mother died, she begged me to love Lydia and Lysette as if they were my own daughters and I swore to do my best to give the girls a good life. I also made up my mind to take care of all the other children who had survived the massacre at the Bishop’s Manor. That night, I became mother and father to 25 children who had been left totally alone in a bloody war,” says Maggy.

She put up a gravestone in honour of Lysette’s parents and all the others who died in the massacre. But Maggy also put up the gravestone so that all the children who had survived

would have a place to go where they could remember their dead parents and brothers and sisters.

“I often go there with Lysette and Lydia. We pray for their parents, and sometimes the girls put beautiful flowers on the grave. Lysette’s parents meant a lot to me. Her mother and I were best friends and I feel that they continue to help me to have the strength to keep fighting.”

“I got a second chance in life thanks to Maggy,” says Lysette Irakoze. Here she is with her sister Lydia as little girls and as teenagers.

Justine and all her siblings one year after the attack.

Maggy and the sisters at the gravestone, which was put up in memory of everyone who died in the massacre.

“I got a second chance in life, thanks to Maggy,” says Lysette Irakoze. Here together with her sister Lydia, as little girls and as teenagers.

37

36-40_Maggi_Burundi_sve,eng,fra.indd 37

09-02-26 09.26.56

Aline lives in Maggy’s vi L

“

andry, it’s time for your bath!” she calls, and starts pouring water into a small plastic tub.

Aline bathes him every day when she comes home from school. Landry doesn’t like it, and he cries. But afterwards, when he sits on Aline’s lap wrapped in a dry towel, he’s calm.

Aline Nimbesha lives in Maggy’s village and wants to help orphaned children.

“If Maggy hadn’t helped me I would have died. I want to be like her and take care of orphaned children,” says Aline, who is 14.

When Aline was five, she lost both of her parents.

Today she lives in one of the villages that Maggy has built for orphaned children. Aline lives with six other children who have now become her family.

“I love children, and I take care of the children in the village when I’ve finished my homework. They sit on my back, and I sing to them to make them calm and happy.

You have to take care of children and make them feel safe,” says Aline.

Aline has been through terrible things herself. In 1993, her village was

attacked and her whole family was killed. Aline is a Tutsi, and the people who killed her family were Hutus.

Hit on the head “They set fire to our village and chased us into the woods. I was only five, but a man slashed my throat with a machete, and hit me in the head with a stone. When he thought that I was dead he walked away. But I was lucky, because a woman took care of me and carried me all the way to Maggy. I

Both Christians and Muslims welcome Most people in Burundi are Catholics. Maggy is also a Catholic, but at Maison Shalom, all children are welcome regardless of their religion. It doesn’t matter if they belong to traditional African religions, or if they’re Muslims, Protestants, Catholics or non-believers. They are all equal for Maggy.

“If I know that a child’s parents were Muslims, I’ll raise the child as a Muslim, since I know that’s what the parents would have wanted,” says Maggy.

38

36-40_Maggi_Burundi_sve,eng,fra.indd 38

09-02-26 09.28.20

was unconscious when I got to Ruyigi, and one side of my head was badly hurt. If Maggy hadn’t taken me in and helped me, I would have died.”

Carefully, Aline touches the scar on her throat. It’s a constant reminder of the horrors she went through.

But although it was Hutus that killed her family, she has never hated them as a group.

“It’s probably because I’ve always had friends who are Hutus. At Maison Shalom and in Maggy’s villages, Hutus and Tutsis live side by

side. We’re friends, and for us there’s no difference.

We’re equals here. That’s what I always tell Tutsis who can’t understand how I can live with Hutus.”

She wants to be like Maggy “Hi, how are you doing?”

Gloriosa has come home.

She’s something of a mother to the other children. She works at the bakery in Ruyigi that Maggy founded so that girls who have completed school can earn their own living. Maggy pays the children’s school fees and gives them maize, rice,

beans, oil, meat and other things they need once a month. If they want other things, they use Gloriosa’s money. When they go to market to buy fresh fruit, for example, she pays – just as any mother would do.

Besides Gloriosa there are also adult women in Maggy’s village who are like mothers to all the children.

If a child has a problem, he or she can talk to them. The village mothers also make

sure that everyone goes to school and they help out if anyone is ill.

When all the girls have come home, they begin preparing for the evening.

Someone tidies, someone else does her homework, and Aline sits on a stool outside the house cleaning rice.

Jacqueline sits nearby, rinsing plantains.

 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTOs: PAUL BLOMGREN

’s village for orphaned children

Landry has fallen asleep on Aline’s back.

T he money G loriosa m a ke s goes to he r ‘family’ in the village.

. It takes ic e a day tw r te a w he s Aline fetc me . ur each ti o h n a lf ha

39

36-40_Maggi_Burundi_sve,eng,fra.indd 39

09-02-26 09.29.54

“It’s better to live here than in an orphanage, because here we’re a family.

We take care of each other and learn a lot of things. We learn to cook and take care of a home, and we even learn to grow vegetables. It’s up to us to do it! The day we leave here, we’ll be able to manage just fine,” says Aline.

But she really doesn’t want to move from Maggy’s village and start her own family. She wants to be like Maggy.

“When I’ve finished school, I want to do everything to help orphaned children. Unfortunately, I believe that there will be more and more orphaned children in Burundi.”

Children are the future Just as in all the other nearby villages, the girls cook the food over an open fire in the yard. They eat and chat about the day’s events. Soon it’s dark and the only thing Aline and the other girls can see is the fires in front of the huts where the other children are sitting, eating and chatting.

“Since we have so many problems in Burundi, it’s even more important that we take care of the children who are growing up now.

Children are the future, and if they get a good start in life, maybe they’ll be different from today’s adults. 

Neighbouring children get help too “The children who live in Maison Shalom’s villages belong to all of Burundi’s religions and ethnic groups, and they all get along. That’s the way it will have to be throughout Burundi if we’re ever going to see peace,” says Maggy. She hopes that the neighbours of the children in Maison Shalom’s villages will see this and understand that it is actually possible to live together in peace.

“I also want everyone in the surrounding area to benefit from Maison Shalom. If we repair houses in our own villages, we help the neighbours to get a new roof as well.

The hospital we built is open to all the 30,000 people who live in this area. We also help the children of our poor neighbours to start school and we pay for their school fees and uniforms. Why should it only be the children in the Maison Shalom villages who go to school?

That would be unfair!

By taking this approach, our work will help all of Burundi,” says Maggy.

Fleury’s slingshot Fleury is seven years old and has just come home from school. He lives in one of Maggy’s villages with his older siblings. He has hurried home today to go out hunting before he does his homework.

“My big brother and I make slingshots. First we go and find good sticks in the woods, and then we go to the market and look for broad rubber bands.

Bands cut from old tyres are very good.”

40

36-40_Maggi_Burundi_sve,eng,fra.indd 40

09-02-26 09.51.32