With power comes responsibility. (Cliched but true!) With great power, great responsibility. The internet is a powerful tool. It can be a plaything, offering self indulgent writing as is the case with this blog. Conversely it can offer a voice to those who have no voice. But only if we,with access to it, make it available. So when I read the personal story of Maryam who met Vestine, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, I could not not hit the keyboard. To ignore it would be to turn away. We, who were privy to them, might recall images from 1994 of terrible machete wounds. And you can read in places like this, perhaps in a detached and historical way, events as they unfolded in Rwanda. But when you read the story of Vestine the wounds to the heart and the soul of this woman, let alone her physical mutilation are the images that strike you, for we know there must be savage and open tears that linger. And are hard for us to ignore. Is she lucky to be alive? I surely hope so.
This is one story worth sharing around – please feel free to do so.
Oh thank you so much for posting this here. It is so appreciated!
It is a feeble contribution – but how can we not tell her story, especially if it is of assistance to Vestine, and/or if in some small way it helps those with the power and resources us to be more responsive in intervening in the mindless hatred we all too often pour out on each other.