Sona Dabaghyan. Letter to Aurora Prize Hero

Dear Marguerite,

Childhood… isn’t it all about that part of our life? That is when the universe, the adults, the place you live in, determine the person you will become later. Gandhi once famously said: “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” This is true for everyone in all kinds of situations from simple little fights between children to cruel and violent wars between adults. Sometimes I think that the people who “stand behind” these wars are the children who once held a grudge against a kid who maybe stole their piece of candy. This might sound too primitive but I think that things are much simpler in real and the reasons for what happens with us and around us are there where our mind doesn’t even cross to look for.

As an adult, everything you do is the mere reflection of your childhood, of the way you were treated, whether you were a happy kid or not. And I truly understand why especially you won the Aurora prize…because You are doing the most sacred job. You are saving children. You are saving the future of your country.

Putting a smile on a child’s face who has gone through so many sufferings – that’s what I am sure is the greatest of all prizes and gifts for You.

Broken dreams and hopes - and not as a result of some routine stress that a teenager goes through in a big city but because of war, because of seeing your parents and your family die at an age when you were supposed to be playing hide and seek with your peers. I can’t imagine how hard it is to recover from that, and to start believing in a better future.

But You are doing it. You are helping children to believe in themselves and in their bright future. You are a Mother who is going to be proud of her children because they will grow up to be the citizens of the world making peace and love instead of war.

War is nothing but a business and no one benefits from it in the end. People should understand that no material things are worth killing each other for. I believe that the day will come when the world will be in peace and harmony and that day seems closer due to people like You.

“They tried to bury us but they didn’t know we were seeds” – this saying of Yours was unimaginably close to my heart as an Armenian. Hearing you say this it seemed to me that it best described all my feelings that no words did before. My nation has suffered much too and we feel the power in these words of Yours. But the most important thing is the fact that these seeds both there in Burundi and here in my country and everywhere else should grow up to be “the green and bright souls of the future” that are not rotten with hatred.

You are saving and raising many children providing them with the love, caring and warmth of the Mother they once lost and I’m sure that’s the hardest yet the most pleasant thing to do as children are the Miracles of our world, they are the Happiness and the proof of the fact that Love does exist.

The world is a much better place with children. Love is all they need to keep it that way! I think You are the embodiment of Love yourself and Your children know it.