Brick by Brick

After a twenty-five-year career spent fighting for women’s rights around the globe at the sacrifice of her family, Karen Sherman looked around and realized she didn’t know her children and had little connection to her husband. With her world—work, marriage, family—crashing down, she made a rash decision, moving to Rwanda with her three sons, an experiment she dubbed “our year of living dangerously.” While her boys attended the international school, she worked to better the lives of women survivors of war in her post as Africa regional director. But as the women survivors—Josephine, Ange, Grace, Euphraise, Debora, Yvette, and Teresa—shared their stories of grit and determination, building lives and raising families despite the harsh challenges of inequality, war, and genocide, Karen began to see how her work was connected to the abuse in her own past, how it was preventing her from becoming the woman she wanted to be. The struggles of these survivors, she realized, were the struggles of women everywhere, regardless of place or circumstance: striving to balance work and family, fighting for real options and choices, trying to make their voices heard. The strength of these women helped Karen find her own way through conflict zones and battles with corrupt politicians. In the end, the journey brings her home to her family and a renewed commitment to fighting for women around the world to live lives free from violence and abuse, in peace and with dignity.