MEGASTARS

"The things that will destroy us are:
Politics without principles;
Pleasure without conscience;
Wealth without work;
Knowledge without character;
Business without morality;
Science without humanity; and
Worship without sacrifice."

--Mahatma Gandhi

"Angel of Burundi"

The Story of Maggie Barankitse and her 10,000 Children

By Essam Farag

Works of great humility, sacrifice and courage are rare during times of dire strife and conflict. When lives are threatened with ever passing minute, few have the strength and perseverance to go beyond personal needs and provide the most incredible gift of selflessness by protecting and safeguarding those in greatest need. This issue’s Megastar is one such individual. In an time when her home country was embroiled in ethnic struggles between Hutus and Tutsis, Burundi’s Maggie Barankitse stood up for justice to defend and shelter those who are most vulnerable during those time, the children.  

Burundi's Nansen Refugee Award Laureate

In 2005, the Nansen Refugee Award - created in 1954 and named after the Norwegian polar explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, who was the world's first international refugee official - was given to the optimistic Burundian humanitarian worker, Maggie Barankitse, who opened her house and heart to more than 10,000 children affected by Burundi's civil war and other regional conflicts, providing them with safety, love, and a chance of a better future. The award is given annually by the UN Refugee Agency to organizations or individuals recognizing their exceptional work among refugees. It was first given in 1954 to Eleanor Roosevelt (USA) and the following year to Queen Juliana (Netherlands). It was also given to Médecins sans Frontières in 1993. In the Statement by Wendy Chamberlin, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, at the 2005 Nansen Refugee Award, Brussels, June 22, 2005 she said,

"Maggie's work consists of 'Lighting candles to fight back the darkness'. She epitomizes courage in a region that has known some of the worst ethnic conflict in modern history. Not only has Maggie consistently raised her voice against ethnic hatred and violence, but in doing so, she has acted on behalf of the most vulnerable and powerless – children who have lost their parents as a result of war or AIDs, displaced people driven from their homes, and refugees returning with only the clothes on their backs. Maggie's nongovernmental agency, Maison Shalom, has saved the lives of thousands of orphaned children from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Refugee women and children coming back to Burundi after years of exile in refugee camps in the region find shelter and support at Maison Shalom. Housing and health care, AIDS prevention, peace education, vocational training, family reunification – these are all the daily bread of Maggie and her colleagues at the Maison Shalom. Through her work, she sends a message of hope for the future. Her actions are clear evidence that individual courage and commitment can make a difference in our world."

Who is Maggie?

Ms. Maggie, the "Angel of Burundi", is the founder of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Maison Shalom (House of Peace), which was founded during the civil war of 1993. The outbreak of terrible violence in October 1993 in Rwanda and Burundi, changed her life forever and made clear her future path. Burundi's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, was assassinated. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi elite, and launched attacks, the Tutsi-dominated army led the reprisals. She witnessed Hutu friends and Tutsi clan beginning the genocidal slaughter of each other. Men, women and children were the victims, and the country swam in its own blood. The conflict affected her as well, where even her own cousins considered her a traitor since she adopted Hutu children at her camp.

At the time of the crisis, she was teaching at a local school in her hometown of Ruyigi, in the country's east. She recalls the horror of seeing 72 people killed before her eyes that fateful October. She managed to save 25 children, taking them under her wing in the chaos of the conflict. "At the beginning there were 25 children whose parents had been killed, then after one year there were 100, then 500, and now it is more than 10,000. So I began to look for land, and I thought, why don't I use my parents land?" Thus Maison Shalom was born, providing a home where orphans and separated children can grow up in an "extended adopted family" - in security, education and love.

Today, Maggie and her crew run four children's villages around the country, as well as a centre for orphans and other vulnerable children in the capital, Bujumbura. "Maggie's children" run a cinema, a public swimming pool, a restaurant, a hairdressing salon and a guest house in Ruyigi.

Other projects she runs range from health care provision to HIV/AIDS prevention and family reunification, as well as helping former child soldiers, children with HIV and young refugees from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Maison Shalom has also reached out to Burundian refugees returning from years of exile in Tanzania, helping the women and children to rebuild their lives. The NGO has worked with returnees to establish small income-generating projects like sewing, carpentry and soap-making. It has also setup UNHCR-supported carpentry projects for returnees in Gisuru commune.

Ms. Maggie, although an ethnic Tutsi, insists on fair and equal treatment of all children, including the Hutus. Due to her strong positions on equal treatment of Hutus and Tutsis, Maggie's past fiancé's were horrified by the thought of a Hutu child joining a Tutsi family. Ms. Maggie said, "it is both of us or neither," and has stayed single to this day. Today, Maggie, the "Angel of Burundi", is the adoptive mother of the abandoned, the ill, and the orphaned.

Maggie's empire and Maison Shalom houses has spread from Ruyigi all over Burundi, Rwanda and Congo. The 50-year-old single-mother of 10,000 children is dreaming on a bigger scale these days to offer free immunization, health care, and education to every African child, under the motto, a "Revolution of Love". By 2004, an estimated 20,000 children had already benefited from her help, either directly or indirectly.

International Recognition

Maggie's work has been widely recognized both locally and internationally. In 1999, on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the French Government honoured five defenders of human rights: Luzia Canuto de Oliveira Pereira, International President of the Rio Maria Committee; Win Tin of Burma, a political prisoner serving a nineteen year sentence; Maggie Barankitse of Burundi, who rescued and protected children who had survived the massacres of 1993; Muchtar Pakpahan, of Indonesia, a union activist who was imprisoned four times between 1994 and 1997; and Ibrahim Rugova of Yugoslavia, who has been working for a non-violent solution in Kosovo.

In 2000 she received the North-South Prize. In 2003, she received the World's Children's Prize and the Spanish Committee for the Aid to Refugees' Juan Maria Bandres Prize for Asylum Rights Advocates. In 2004, she was awarded an honourary doctorate by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belguim and the Four Freedoms Award from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Voices of Courage Award, from the US-based Women's Commission for Refugees Women and Children. When she was given the Four Freedoms Award, they mentioned to her "your life gives true meaning to the four freedoms. Franklin Delano Roosevelt from his wheel-chair would have reached out to embrace you - and we do now, in his name, by the award of this medal honouring your commitment to freedom from Want." She was presented awards by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Queen Juliana of Netherlands, Medicins sans frontiers, and late Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere.

In a statement issued by UNHCR on the occasion of awarding her the Refugee Award on World Refugee Day in Brussels, Belgium on June 22, it was said that Ms. Maggie was being recognized for her "tireless work with separated children whose lives have been devastated by war and the scourge of AIDS. As part of the award, she also received a $10,000 grant for a refugee-related project of her choice. With all the awards and accolades Maggie has received for her determination and dedication, her “Revolution of Love” may slowly become a reality.

Further Readings:

Essam Farag, BA Honors (Dalhousie), MA (Guelph) is currently the special projects coordinator for the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR). He is the Production Editor of the Ambassadors Magazine. Email: essamfarag@ambassadors.net 

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