Violettes story

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In Rwanda many people died due to the genocide there and although a quarter million died some survived . on lady that survived was a lady named Violette and here is what she went through. Carrying her two children in her arms, she fled to a nearby church where she thought she and her family would be safe. Instead of finding sanctuary, Violette and her family walked into a nightmare. "There was shooting going on, and people were falling on others and dying everywhere," Violette said. The church was under attack by a machete-wielding militia. To survive, Violette was forced to lie down in the aisle and smear blood on herself and her children. Pretending to be dead, they hid among the corpses. Afraid to move, to cry, to even breathe, they lay there for an entire week until the Rwandan army came to liberate the area. Violette estimated that there were 700 people in that church - only 20 survived.

In the chaos and violence, Violette’s husband was brutally murdered. She was left to raise their five year old son, Eric, and four year old girl, Angelique. As so many other women in Rwanda did, Violette took in an orphan who lost his family during the war

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