Vatican City, Mar 13, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- She begged and scrounged for food in the forest; she drank water from a stream with dead bodies in it; she wrapped grass on her feet in order to walk long distances in the hot sun in order to survive, facing starvation and malnourishment, all before the age of six.
Now, Mirreille Twayigira is a licensed medical doctor hoping not just to save lives, but to inspire young women worldwide – particularly those in her same situation – by showing them there’s hope, and that life is more than the tragedies they face.
While some might label her life “a tragic story” due to the suffering and loss she faced as a young child, Twayigira said others might choose to call it “a story of courage and perseverance.”
However, “I choose to call it a story of hope, a story of God…from ashes to beauty, (like) a beautiful stained glass window.”
Twayigira was among several speakers at the March 8 Voices of Faith women’s gathering in the Vatican, marking International Women’s Day.
First held in 2014, the VoF conference was established in response to Pope Francis’ call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence.”
Gathering women from around the world, this year’s VoF took place at the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and featured testimonies of women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, who shared their stories of perseverance, highlighting the importance of building peace in a world filled with conflict.
In her testimony, Twayigira noted that when war broke out between Tutsis and members of the Hutu majority the government, leading to mass killings of the Tutsi tribe, she was just three years-old.
Although she doesn’t remember much about the war itself when it started, she remembers the day she got the news that her father had been killed.
“I remember being told that my father had been killed, his body being brought home wrapped in this blue tent,” she said, noting that she was too young to fully understand what was happening on the day of his burial.
Before the war, “we were a big, happy family. Our house was next to our grandparent’s house, so my sister and I used to spend our days with uncles and aunts…so it was a beautiful and happy childhood,” she said.
After her father’s death, however, this changed dramatically.
“My family knew that it was no longer safe for us, so they had to pack and leave,” she said, explaining that at first, they fled to another district of Rwanda, thinking they would be safe.
However, after just a short time her younger sister, who was just one-year-old at the time, got sick and, because her family didn’t have access to medicine or proper nourishment due to the war, she passed away.
After her sister’s death – which marked the second time she had lost a sibling, since an older sister had died before Twayigira was born – the family fled through Burundi to a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“In the camp I was a very happy kid,” she said, “but this all ended when I encountered more loss.”
While in the camp, her mother fell ill and “one night she was gone.” However, Twayigira said that despite the tragic death of her mother, “life had to go move on,” so she and her grandparents continued to move forward.
But just two years later, in 1996, they had to leave because of war in the DRC, which is when “I began to experience a life that is unimaginable,” she said, recalling how she had her grandparents fled the camp with bullets flying over their heads, and took refuge in the forest.
“We only survived by begging for food,” she said. Her grandparents begged from locals in nearby villages, and at times were given moldy bread to eat. When begging wasn’t enough, “we even had to eat roots from the forest.”
“I remember sometimes we had to drink water from rivers with dead bodies floating in it,” she said, noting that their situation had become one of the “survival of the fittest.”
They had long distances to walk going from village to village and in search of another camp, many times walking on rough terrain. When the weather was too hot for their bare feet, they bunched up grass and tied it to their feet in order to be able to walk.
“We escaped death from so many things: from hunger, bullets, drowning, wild animals, you name it. No child should go through what I went through. In fact, nobody should go through what I went through,” she said.
Eventually the family made their way to another refugee camp, “but life would not be better there,” she said. While there were some soldiers protecting them, they would take young boys and train them to fight, and would take girls either as companions for the night or, at times, as wives.
Most of the boys leave refugee camps “with some sort of trauma,” she said, noting that when it came to the girls, some got pregnant, and others were made to be servants.
“The only reason I survived this is because I was very little,” Twayigira said. Due to the ongoing war, she and her grandparents traveled to nearby Angola before eventually ending up back in the DRC for a period of time.
However, with no improvement to the situation and no end to the war in sight, they again made their way to Angola for the second time. But when they arrived, “my grandma was very tired, and as for me, I was very malnourished.”
“You can imagine a big tummy and thin brown hair, and swollen cheeks and feet,” she said, describing herself as a young girl.
Twayigira recalled that her grandmother died shortly before they reached the refugee camp in Angola, and that had they not arrived when they did, “I was also almost gone.”
With just the two of them left, Twayigira explained that her grandfather eventually decided to travel to a different refugee camp in Zambia, because he heard they had a better school.
Despite such a long journey and so much loss, her grandfather moved again for no other reason “than to give his granddaughter a better education,” Twayigira said. She recalled that her grandfather “really believed in me so much. He never once said, ‘she’s just a girl, let me not waste my time on her.’”
After spending a few years in Zambia, the pair decided to make yet one more move, this time heading to a camp in Malawi that had better living conditions and even better schools. They arrived in September 2000.
Twayigira immediately enrolled in school once she arrived, making several new friends and, for the first time since they had left, was happy to have adequate food and shelter.
Being able to do well in her classes “would give me joy. Because at least I got to make some people proud, and I was very happy,” she said. Twayigira was eventually selected to join a Jesuit-run school, with all fees paid for by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
When she finished school in 2007, Twayigira’s grandfather fell ill, passing away just a few days after.
“I cried uncontrollably, badly, but life had to go on, and although I was in so much pain with the loss of my loved ones, it did not stop me from working hard,” she said, “because I knew that my future, it was not certain, I did not know what my future had, but I knew that my hard work would pay off.”
In 2009 she studied for the national final exam in Malawi, and finished among the top 6 students in the country. At the awards ceremony, the Chinese embassy offered a number of full-ride scholarships to study in China for the top students.
Twayigira was one of the students selected and, despite being a refugee with no citizenship status or passport, was able to get her paperwork in order with the help of the Jesuits at her school, a Catholic radio station and even the Malawian parliament.
She then moved to China and studied the language for a year before officially beginning classes in Chinese. She has since graduated and is currently working as a medical intern in Malawi.
While there were many times she wanted to give up along the way, Twayigira said she persisted, because at a certain point she realized that “God spared my life” not to keep it for herself, but because “there are people that I was meant to serve.”
“Before I went to China, I used to think I was just this girl with a tragic past…but when I got to China I realized that I’ve got a story to tell; a story of God and his love, a story that can change somebody’s life.”
As a doctor, Twayigira said she feels she can give even more. But in addition to her medical duties, she also looks for opportunities to speak in schools to try and “raise hope among the youth, especially refugee youth.”
She said that in the future, she hopes to work more directly with refugees, “because I believe I have a lot to share, having gone through what they’ve gone through.”
“Now this is my story…but unfortunately for many, theirs is just in the tragedy part,” she said, explaining that many refugee children don’t even have access to adequate housing let alone higher education.
Even those who do get a good education don’t necessarily have the same opportunities, Twayigira said, so “their hopes are just crushed.”
In order to change the situation, she said war itself has to end: “why not end all this violence, and I’m not talking about people from other countries coming in to invade our own countries, I mean why wait for an outsider to come to stop hurting, and killing?”
“Is the money or power at the expense of their blood really worth it? I don’t think so,” she said, adding that the only way to really resolve conflict is with “forgiveness, mercy and love.”
“Is there such humanity in us, or have we become robots?” she asked. “What is happening to innocent kids is completely unfair, and it needs to stop and I believe it starts from within us: from love, forgiveness and mercy.”
People in situations similar to hers need to know “that they are loved by God and people around them. They need to know that they matter, that there is hope for them, that they have a purpose in life,” she said, noting that this stems not only from having the basic needs met, but above all from education.
In an interview with CNA after her talk, Twayigira stressed the importance of education, saying it’s “really the key to everything, because if not educated, many girls don’t even know their value.”
However, with a good education women learn that “okay, I’m not worthless and someone can’t just come and step on my foot. I am somebody,” she said, adding that a proper education helps women to step into decision making positions where they can change things.
“I believe that once a girl is educated, that means you’re actually educating the whole family. Because a woman, you raise your children, they’re with you all the time, you know that whatever they get is what you teach them,” she said.
“So if a woman is educated that means the whole family will get quality advice from their mothers. So educating a girl is actually educating the whole country.”
Twayigira said she was happy to be able to speak at the Vatican, since the event was streamed live. She voiced her hope that people can hear her story “and not just feel sorry for me, but also see ways they can help other people like me to get a better education or a safe place, or open their homes to refugees like me.”
She said she also hopes other young women and girls from around the world will be able to see and hear her story, and to know that “it’s all possible…I believe that I’m a pillar of hope for them.”
She said one of her hopes coming out of the conference is not only to encourage young women in her situation to have hope, but also that the people who have the power and resources to change things will see that they “can actually do something under-privileged people like I was.”
“Their actions can change somebody’s life for the better, never to be the same,” she said.
[…]
Another whack job with a token catholic look but underneath the sulphuric emissions are all too real! Lord, come back soon!
This woman is a troublemaker, as is Francis. Whenever people use the word “extreme” to describe ideas other than their own, I conclude that they’re into demonizing those with whom they disagree. I pray for the Pope’s successor that he will be a faithful Catholic.
The Pontiff Francis believes that “his-reform,” (which is “the-evil-spirit-of-vadigun-too”) is halfway to its goal, which is, as the woman “Ms-Caram-of-Argentina” represents, the “new-pagan-church-of-sacramental-sodomy.”
These above understand their duty to protect and defend the serial-sex-abusers of their cult, like “Rev.” Rupnik. He must remain free, to send a message to the “rigid, childish, backwardist” pewsitters, who the ruler of their cult is, and that The Beast who rules the world, is likewise their Occult Lord and Mistress.
calling myself an evangelical catholic I have to concur with many of your views. In Ireland which has lost most of its catholic ethos some of us who are sinners still recognise our sins but we certainly do not condone sin. And that is what homosexaulity is. A disbelief in Hell is another popular perception at present. It is a dangerous one and of course is aimed at the young who remain so vulnerable because of the society they have been brought into.
Utterly unsurprising. The Pope has surrounded himself with shallow revolutionaries and heretics for many decades. He is comfortable among them because he is one of them. We become like the people we choose as friends. Pray for all of them, and those who parrot their lies.
Amen!
Poor judgment by Pope Francis in his guest selections, at the very least! He’s not protecting Catholic teaching.
Yes, yes, yes.
Has he ever? He is as bad as the rest of them and probably way worse
Arguing for gay marriage, denying the existence of hell, defending abortion, vilifying the moral code laid down in the Bible — and Bergoglio meets with her? Encourages her?
Never mind hell. Will the Catholic Church exist once Bergoglio’s diabolical papacy is finished?
Our Lord said the Gates of Hell will not prevail for a reason, and He did not say how close they might come. Pope Paul saw the smoke. We are seeing the flames.
And he enables Rupnik while booting Strickland and Burke.
Appalling.
Here’s a story idea for CWR:
Bergoglio is the worst pope in how many hundreds of years?
Was there ever a Borgia as bad as this?
How about Stephen VI? John XII? Boniface VIII?
I would love to see how our own Bergoglio stacks up with some of the worst billing in Church history.
Worst popes. Not worst “billing.”
(Sigh.)
. the listing of the name of a performer, act, or the like, on a marquee, poster, handbill, etc., esp. in regard to prominence: got top billing.
(I think he meant the prominence relationship/top tier as far as billing, perhaps)
It appears the cult of faux katholics is not to be undone…
When Pope Francis welcomes and talks to clergy who has opposing Catholic views than the Church, shows us that he is tolerant, it doesn’t mean that he agrees with their views and/or life styles. Wouldn’t Jesus do the same? However, Jesus would probably correct them gently and would tell them to sin no more.
I also wonder what Pope Francis reaction would be with very Orthodox and/or traditional Catholics. I assume that he would be kind too. Isn’t this what Jesus would want from the Pope, and/or one of us?
Therefore, let’s stop speculating what the Pope’s intentions are when he welcomes clergy who disagree with Catholic doctrine. However, that’s not easy to do, and I think the Vatican should explain what the objective of these meeting between the Pope and controversial Catholic clergy.
The Vatican needs to be more transparent in this area and many others!
That’s exactly the problem – Francis has marginalized orthodox and traditional Catholics, used all sorts of pejorative names to describe them, dismissed them from their positions and refuses to meet with them. That’s how fair and open minded this pope is and why some of us have chosen to ignore every utterance of his.
When has he had anything but praise for the actual heterodoxy of the heretics and insults for loyal Catholics?
Dominican Sister Lucía Caram espouses heresy through her Spanish media outlet and Pope Francis encourages her to continue. Not the garden variety topics like Fiducia Suplicans. Rather the high toxic variety like freedom to commit abortion [a freedom she says God cannot object to because of the very gift of freedom], Catholic Church homosexual marriage, non existence of hell.
When the Holy Father visited Athens a Greek Orthodox priest famously shouted, Papa! Eísai Hairetikós. Pope! You are a heretic. We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it. However, what Gk Orthodox Fr Ionis shouted is what much of the world believes. If not the heretical condemnation, at least the predilection of beliefs. The planet has become largely heterodox insofar as Christ’s revelation and Catholic moral doctrine.
Diabolic in its etymological Gk form means to disrupt, to break apart. If there is a clear, unambiguous policy identified in this pontificate it’s to dismember, to break apart the unity that existed and that distinguished Catholic Christianity through the centuries.
“We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it.”
In the sport of wrestling, the action is considered in bounds so long as any part of either wrestler’s body remains with the circle that defines the boundary. Many wrestlers have scored points by having only the tops of their shoes inside that area. Francis is constantly drifting out to the perimeter, ever so careful to leave one toe in, as he continually shoots ankle picks on matters than he wishes to pin.
Perhaps it’s better to remain completely in bounds when the referee is the Almighty and might recognize a transparent attempt to stall or flee the mat.
A really good, humorous analogy. Wonder that he knows he can fool a lot of us but not God, then what is his game? The presumptive answer isn’t pleasant. A reason why I offer my prayer with deep intent at the, Recordare, Domine, Ecclesiae tuae toto orbe diffusae, ut eam in caritate perficias, una com Papa nostro Francis.
That’s una ‘cum’ Papa nostro Francis. Cum, meaning with, referring to unity, which is where the disruption is. The literal dismembering of the Body of Christ.
Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines. Jesus came for all of us not just for those christians who are perfect.
“Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines.”
Deep. But what about those who criticize those who criticize the Pope and sister?
You too may choose to read. Rev. 21:1-8. Then ask the Holy Spirit’s help to figure out where you may be found in the book.
So it’s a mere “imperfection” for a nun or an American President to promote abortion and for a Pope to praise them for such devotion to such a world view? And there it is an objective evil to criticize cold-blooded moral indifference to this greatest crime in human history?
He did not come for the righteous is how I understand it.
Obviously you’re the one who did not get your Bible out. And if you did you probably did not read it.
Go on. Start reading.
Just when you might think that anything could not get worse with this papacy—another new mess.
Sister Caram has the right to preach a gospel. It’s just not, undeniably, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gospel with no hell, ergo no real need for repentance and conversion. I’m OK, you’re OK.
She has a right to advocate for her version of a church. It is just not, undeniably, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is rather a church that surrenders to the secular culture on abortion, pornography and just about everything else. A church destined for irrelevance because if a church does identify with the secular culture, who then needs it?
We read, for example: “In 2014, she told La Opinión de Málaga online news that ‘those who freely make the decision [to abort] have to be the people [involved]. The Church cannot meddle in there. Not even God, who made us free for a reason’.”
Consider the abruptness, totality and irreversibly of being (ex)terminated even before we see the light of day. Sometimes with a scissors through the skull in a late-term abortion. Small wonder that Pope St. John Paul II identified abortion as an “unspeakable crime.”
But, hey, in bizarro-world Sister What’sername ingests face time with the papacy she despises.
We notice that in another posting today, one of the issues for the next Synod and for the earlier working groups is “the mission in the digital age.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/03/14/pope-francis-study-groups-to-examine-10-synod-on-synodality-themes-through-june-2025/
Fraud-alert! These two have chosen nomenclature to connote a St. Pope Francis and a St. Sr. Lucia! Instead of fraudsters, let us think on our dear Lord Jesus and his good true saints who also suffered fraudsters. These two shall pass as shall we. Some will die twice but others only once. Good Christian soldiers, stand guard and stay strong through the blood of Christ.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And the who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Rev. 21:1-8.
You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism, but even I think Religion Digital is over the line. As a Franciscan we try to live – Gospel to Life, Life to Gospel. Not easy for some Catholics to accept.
Peace my friends
Next time, just tell us you think whatever you embrace makes you better than the rest of us.
Have you ever found yourself thanking the Almighty that you aren’t like the rest of the rabble?
“You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism…”. Cease wondering. Yes, I do. Not even on the fringe. More, I have metaphysical certitude that the OSF has little to do any more with St. Francis of Assisi.
“If any are found who…are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may have found such a one, be bound through obedience to bring him before the custodian of that place nearest to where they found him. And the custodian is strictly bound by obedience to keep him securely day and night as a prisoner, so that he cannot be taken from his hands until he can personally deliver him into the hands of his minister. And the minister is bound by obedience to send him with such brothers who shall guard him as a prisoner until they deliver him to the Lord of Ostia, who is the Master, the Protector and the Corrector of this fraternity.”
The Testament of St. Francis
Ah, how Catholic media so quickly adopted woke-speak as put forth in the woke bible “style book”….this sister and her pals are only “controversial”, not heretical.
Anything inside the Church today which flaunts ancient teaching and scripture is only “controversial” and not heretical.
And then folk wonder why Catholic media seems to be so ineffective in helping staunch the tidal wave of the “controversial” swamping the Church, and same with pronouncements by hierarchy.
It really is time for the villagers to gather and remove the threat of the Jesuit vampires.
“Continue fighting for this living Church…”🤣 Brilliant! Reads like St. Basil the Great! More like drivel from the formation manual of the Berkeley Jesuits. 🤦🏼♂️
Not that it’s wrong in itself for the Pope to meet with simpatico atheists…(Does this pontificate believe that anything is objectively wrong?)
Yes, plastic straws and backwardist rigidity (i.e., virtually anything that smacks of orthodox Catholicism).
After promising long ago never to go there again, I made myself google “Berkeley Jesuits.” The front page of the Jesuit School of Theology is actually worse than the rubbage of this pontificate. I had to put a mask on to read it! 😷
Living Theology. [I’m alive!]
Transforming Our World. [I’m a transformer!]
The most dynamic and rigorous learning occurs at the intersection of scholarship and culture. [I’m intersecting!]
Health Advisory Alert: Find Covid-19 announcements and resources from JST here. [I’m distancing!]
Find Your Purpose [I’m on purpose!]
Dear Fool!
You’ve had this disordered order and its pathetic prelate pegged from the beginning.
Now you reveal that there is actually a googlable page for ‘Berkeley Jesuits.’
I would never have believed it. I mean, talk about redundancy!