Marguerite Barankitse

Marguerite (Maggie) Barankitse (born in 1957 in Ruyigi, Ruyigi province, Burundi) is a Burundian humanitarian activist who works to improve the welfare of children and challenge ethnic discrimination in Burundi. After rescuing 25 children from a massacre, she was forced to witness the conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi in her country in 1993. She established Maison Shalom, a shelter that provided access to healthcare, education, and culture to over 20,000 orphan children in need. Because she protested against a third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza, she lives in exile. During the 26 years that it operated in Burundi, Maison Shalom grew into a large network of schools, hospitals, and healthcare services across the country. Its purpose was to improve the lives of Burundi's children, through integrated and sustainable development with the ultimate aim of fostering lasting peace in the country. However, in 2015 Barankitse was forced to flee her country, and Maison Shalom plunged into a political crisis. Far from surrendering, Barankitse shifted her focus and decided to dedicate all of her energy to helping more than 90,000 Burundian refugees in Rwanda. In 2017, she opened the Community Center Oasis of Peace in Kigali to help schoolchildren, offer psychological and social support to torture and rape victims, and implement sustainable development activities in areas such as health, education, vocational training, culture, and income-generation. She stated that her vision is to instill dignity in refugees to keep their dreams alive: "Evil never has the last word – Love always wins." Barabkitse has received numerous awards, including the Juan Maria Bandres Prize for Asylum Rights, and the French Government's Human Rights Prize (both 1998), the World Children's Prize (2003), the Four Freedoms Award (Freedom From Want), the Voices of Courage Award of the Women's Commission for Women and Refugee Children (both 2004), the Nansen Refugee Award (2005), the Opus Prize (2008), the UNESCO Prize (both 2008), the Prize for Conflict Prevention (2011), and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity (2016). Biography Marguerite "Maggie" Barankitse was born in 1957 in Ruyigi, East-Burundi, one of the poorest regions of the country. Of Tutsi heritage, she was a teacher at a local secondary school but was fired because of her protests against discrimination between the Hutu and Tutsi in the field. She then went to work as a secretary for the Catholic bishop in Ruyigi.