Malala Yousafzai collected the stories in We Are Displaced to show that refugees are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances.

She chose to include Marie Claire because her story had made huge impression on her. She remembers Marie Claire not only for the story she told but also for the story she didn’t.

"When she spoke, I felt her trauma as well as her triumph. The picture of this moment, as she revealed her past, is still in my head."

Marie Claire was born in the Congo and spent the first four years of her life on the run in the bush. Displaced by war from the moment of her birth, she had never known peace. As they headed South towards Zambia, Marie Claire and her family travelled at dead of night, and slept by day beneath thorny bushes to protect themselves from wild animals. Unfortunately Zambia proved to be far from a safe haven but Marie Claire never forgot her mother's inspiring words.

Read by Cherrelle Skeete
Abridged and directed by Kate McAll.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 Show less