There are those who walk among us, whose mere presence is enough to command respect, to cause one's eyeballs to pivot forward and focus with intensity, to straighten one's shoulders, lift one's head and vow to do better, to be better.
Marguerite 'Maggy' Barankitse is one such person.
Maggy, pictured above with myself, is founder of Maison Shalom (House of Peace). After witnessing the slaughter of her colleagues at a mission in her home country of Burundi during the Civil War between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, which lasted more than a decade and where more than 300,000 people were murdered, Maggy was not done.
She did not give up. She did not loose hope. She did not loose faith in humanity.
She did help an orphaned child whose parents had perished. She did help another one. And another. She did create self-employment programs, where the youth own their own businesses. She did create inter-ethnic family housing. She did take in former child soldiers. Believing that children deserve more than mere survival she did build a cinema and a pool.
She has now helped more than 30,000 children.
In Burundi, a small African country which the World Bank considers to be the poorest in the world and where the majority of people live on less than $1 per day, she says “I know that evil will never take the last word. Never. Never.”
Here she is, in her own words, describing what it takes to see clearly. In essence we need a vision, we need to be clear about what we wish for, where we're headed and what we want to realize.
Maggy's vision has enabled her to achieve remarkable things. How does your vision enable or hinder you?
Life Lenses™, a self-assessment, is designed to help you see clearly. I hope it does just that.
