The story of Marie Claire

Marie Claire Gegera lives in Genova, but her roots and a significant piece of her future live in Burundi. When she talks about it, her eyes sparkle, as they were crossed by the flyby of migrating birds that touch the sweet water of Lake Tanganyika.

She often jokes about her height, and with her smile, she reminds us several times that a man’s or a woman's caliber depends not on their height but on their capacity to love.

Marie Claire has a big, huge, wounded heart. She walked barefoot on its scars, feeling all that bitter, voiceless, ineffable pain. Supported by her strong faith (the most precious inheritance that her mother left her when she was still a child), she mended her wounds one by one, by weaving threads of hope, compassion, and charity. It’s right there, in the furrows of her deepest pain, that the unexpected healing flourished.

Against the backdrop of a bloody war that tore the core of Africa apart, she took the hands of her parents’ murderer, she stopped into his glance, eyes to eyes, heart to heart, and she forgave him.

With her charity “Carità in movimento”, she supports initiatives and projects that provide hope for her homeland, but her mission oversteps geographical borders and becomes “sharing”. With her commitment she invites each and one of us to express in acts of charity and hope for whoever we may meet, close or far, because what really matters in this life is, actually, only love.

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