Coming out of a deep hole after a life of trials.

My name is Charlotte Uwera. I was born in 1969. I studied until primary six. My father was a mason and my mother a cultivator. I am one of six siblings. Three of my siblings died during the genocide and the fourth one faced a normal death. Only my big sister and I survived the genocide. I have nine children of my own and three adopted children. Among those nine children, there is one daughter born as a result of gang rape. Before the genocide happened, I had six children with my non-legal husband. We had been living together since 1987. I lost two of my children during the genocide and gave birth to my other four children from my husband after the genocide. Before the genocide, I was living a good life. I had no problems because I still had my relatives. The person I loved most was my mother, because when I had any problems we solved them together. In my daily life, I miss my peers who were such good friends. When the 1994 genocide started, I survived it because of God. The Interaham-we cut me a number of times with their machetes, stepped on my belly, and left me where I had taken refuge. They cut me after I had become tired of running. I ran away just to reach anywhere else; I was searching for refuge. I was in Nyamata Catholic parish, I went to Ntarama Catholic Church, and I met the killers wherever I went. When I was in Ntarama Church, I saw that it would be very difficult to escape from there. Then I ran away towards the nearby swamp. They caught me there and cut both my legs. I stayed there lying on my back because I could not move. They came and cut me with their machetes and set up a fire with dry banana leaves, but I did not die. My husband was hiding nearby and he was the one who gave me water and poured water on my wounds, especially during the night. That is why the Inkotanyi, after capturing Nyamata, found me while I was still breathing. I have been deprived of my human rights. They killed my relatives in front of my eyes. They cut me everywhere, and then a group of more than one hundred men came to rape me. It was very hard to live …