Rebuilding Life After Tragedy

Immaculée Ilibagiza grew up in Rwanda--a country divided by tribal allegiances. During the genocide in 1994, she was forced into hiding to avoid being raped, mutilated or killed. She hid in a bathroom at a local pastor's house with seven other women for three months. Once it was safe to come out, she started working at a U.N. office, comforting a number of children who were orphaned by the genocide and later emigrated to the United States, where she is now a speaker and an author. Her first book about her life in Rwanda, called Live to Tell, sold half a million books and went on to become a New York Times best-seller.

Her latest book, Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, further explores how her religious faith helped her rebuild her life after this horrible tragedy.

Immaculée radiates faith. She believes we are all the same people created by the same God. While she admits to questioning and being angry at God during and after her ordeal, she also believes that she couldn't turn away. She recalls asking God to give her a sign that he was with her during the genocide so that she'd know He was real.

She also, like most of us going through profound change, asked "Why?" She doesn't have an exact answer, but says we can accept what we have endured by understanding that what we are going through is just a very small part of a much bigger and eternal picture. When she was able to accept and able to face it, she was able to begin to heal. The forgiveness she has been able to extend to those who hurt her has been an ongoing and challenging process, but she came to a point where hating was hurting her. "I couldn't remember how to smile," she says. In hating, she felt like she was becoming like those who hurt her and her family, and she had to choose something more positive.

No matter what you believe about God or faith, Immaculée's interview on our Change Nation video podcast can inspire you. She explains how her faith was strengthened in the face of genocide, and what you can do to improve your relationship with a higher power.