What is Love’s Inventions?
Love’s Inventions is an organization built to share the work, vision and voice of Maggy Barankitse. It honors her legacy of fierce love in action—through educational programs, healing, advocacy, and global storytelling.
Our Mission
Love’s Inventions supports and expands Maggy Barankitse’s mission of fierce love, peace, and hope to the world.
Our Vision
Love’s Inventions will infuse people with a sense of dignity, hope and agency in our broken world, thereby inspiring a new generation committed to solving the world’s social problems.
Our Founder
Marguerite (“Maggy”) Barankitse often is described as an unstoppable force for peace and hope — a visionary humanitarian and fierce advocate for children displaced by disaster and disease.
After spending her early career as a high school French instructor and administrative secretary to a Roman Catholic bishop in her native Burundi, Maggy survived a genocidal outbreak in 1993 and responded by establishing Maison Shalom (“House of Peace”) in her hometown of Ruyigi.
“I grew up in a family that taught me to be a builder of hope, of new community, of humanity,” Maggy said. “We must shine in this life. It’s the only mission we have on Earth. When God created us, he said, ‘Go and make this Earth into paradise.’ We have an exceptional, amazing vocation.”
Since then, Maggy has sheltered and supported tens of thousands of orphans and other children who have been uprooted by ethnic conflicts, AIDS and other diseases. In 2015, a political crisis in Burundi forced Maggy to flee to Rwanda, where she reestablished Maison Shalom and dedicated her life to serving orphans and families displaced by violence. Initially, she focused on Burundian refugees in Rwanda, but soon expanded her work to support all individuals in exile.
For her unstinting efforts, Maggy has been honored with many international awards and has been the subject of a number of magazine profiles and books, including the Juan Maria Bandres Prize for Asylum Rights, the Opus Prize (2008), the UNESCO Prize, and the inaugural Aurora Prize for the Awakening of Humanity (2016), to name a few.
Love Made
Me an Inventor
By David Toole
This authorized biography tells the powerful story of Maggy Barankitse—a woman who answered genocide with love. Written by David Toole, the book traces her journey from the founding of Maison Shalom to her ongoing work with refugee communities, offering a profound reflection on compassion, courage, and human dignity.
Our goal is simple: to amplify a message of community and human dignity that the world needs now more than ever. Love is not just a feeling, but a creative, life-changing force.
Get Involved
Love’s Inventions is Maggy’s invitation to participate in the transformative power of love and reconciliation. Following her example, let’s join hearts and hands to change our world as ambassadors of love for all humanity.
