She is a Mother with a Heart

She looks lovingly at the small

creature wrapped in her hands

 whose father cannot be distinguished among

the many militia of that night.

The sight of it breaks her heart, bringing up an everlasting fire of 'why?'

Yet, the innocence of the baby makes her smile in between tears;

She is a mother with a heart,

She is a woman like any of us.

She was born in East Congo, her only misfortune

She entered the universe as a product of rape

She witnessed the unjustified execution of her mother,

She had no one to protect her; no social service, no child protection laws

She runs and hides here and there

All night long, seeking refuge in wild fields

to escape atrocities;

She has no bread to feed the little mouths she was forced to bear

She watches them as one by one they vanish before her eyes;

Some surrender to the safety of death, they escape the torture of life

Others live through suffering,

only to also carry unwanted pregnancies 

She is a woman who wakes up to torture every day,

She is a mother who powerlessly tries in vain to protect her children 

She cries out within her, praying God 

would end her misery;

She is a woman in need of help and compassion,

She is what the West calls 'vulnerable member of our society'

Yet she has no one to defend her rights;

She is a mother with a heart.