Editor,

This is with reference to your article, "Meet Mukahirwa, the landlady who started out as a housemaid” (The New Times, May 12).

At the outset, please allow me to appreciate your newspaper for sharing such wonderful stories with readers not only in Rwanda, but through your e-edition, with readers like me, even in far away India!

Kudos to Josephine Mukahirwa for proving that "where there is a will there is surely a way”.

Stories like these not only serve as a source of great encouragement to the individual concerned, but, more importantly, serve as a lesson to everyone that despite all odds, an individual, with grit and determination, can succeed if they really want to.

Becoming a young widow at the tender age of seventeen is itself a shattering experience. With the then young teenager having to take care of parents and also her child, it’s obvious that it was such a difficult situation for Ms Mukahirwa.

It is a well known saying that "fortune favours the brave”. Yes, for sure, Ms Mukahirwa must have put on a very brave face; as she so rightly said her mission was "not merely to survive, but to thrive”.

This story also reminds me of another young and brave Rwandan, Charlotte Twahirwa, covered by your newspaper about a year ago. A survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who was only two at the time of the pogrom, battled against all odds and is today employed in an Indian company, Sahasra Technologies, in Kigali.

It was The New Times which opened up this opportunity for Ms Twahirwa by reporting her story. This enabled me to invite her for our "Rwanda Calling 2014” International Business Forum at which she secured her

current job with the Indian company, which was present at that event.

Do keep up the good work of covering such inspiring stories in your newspaper.

Clarence Fernandes, Mumbai, India