by Charity 
My name is Bonifrida, and during the genocide, I was married and a mother of seven children. My husband was from the Hutu tribe, which caused a terrible disagreement among family members. But my father explained that marrying into a Hutu family would serve as protection for my whole family once Hutus began to kill Tutsi again. Both my grandparents were killed by Hutus in 1962, and my father grew up in fear that such killings would happen again.
During the genocide, my husband’s family (Hutu) did not protect my father or my siblings. They were all killed. Even I was not protected despite being married to a Hutu husband.
My husband’s family does not trust or care about me. They wish I had died with other Tutsis. Meanwhile, my Tutsi side of the family does not trust me and sees my marriage to a Hutu man as a betrayal. I have been isolated for 28 years and not welcomed in other survivor gatherings or associations.
Receiving this gift from Million Lives as a survivor of genocide means a lot to me. This goat is more than anything to me. It makes me feel that I have regained my community of survivors, and they now see me as one of them. We are all suffering the same pain. I have been living by myself for so many years, but now, I won’t be alone in the house anymore because my goat will live inside with me. I will talk to my goat, and when sadness comes, my goat will listen to me. We are going to be good friends.
