Pushing the Elephant

Rose Mapendo likens her life’s work to pushing an elephant. She’s a Congolese refugee and mother of ten children, two of whom were born in the darkness of a prison camp where she was held because she was born Tutsi. Pushing the elephant, indeed. I watched a documentary about Rose and the fight she’s waging on behalf of women and children in conflict zones. I watched her wrestle with her memories of home and the atrocities that beset her there, and then I watched her voluntarily return to urge women to join together to push the elephants of war, rape, and silence. Rose’s story is hers to tell. Will you listen? Pushing the Elephant