Rose Mapendo and her husband and seven children lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the Rwandan Tutsi army invaded their country in 1998. Four years after the Rwandan genocide claimed the lives of one million, Mapendo and her family were imprisoned. Soldiers forced Mapendo to listen as they tortured and executed her husband. She delivered twins in darkness on a cold cement floor, and scores of others she knew were killed or else died of disease or malnutrition. After being unexpectedly rescued some sixteen months later and fleeing to the United States with her remaining family, Mapendo taught herself to read and write, and went on to help found a humanitarian aid organization that identifies, protects and cares for people fleeing war and violence. How has she managed this, in the wake of all that she has experienced? "I forgive," Rose Mapendo says, through her tears. "And when I forgive, it makes me very, very strong."