Countries Stories | Countries The quest for forgiveness is universal, empowering people of all beliefs and backgrounds to relinquish hate, cynicism and vengeful instincts. These stories come from all corners of the world and whether they focus on mending broken hearts or broken communities, show that forgiveness is about connecting to a common, shared humanity. Click on a letter to jump to a country category: A B C D E H I L N P R S U A Choose country: Argentina Australia Argentina (1 story) Sebastian Marroquin "The fact that the sons of two former arch enemies are now friends is really what gives me the most hope." Read more Australia (2 stories) Kelly Connor "I still almost choke to say I forgive myself and sometimes I can’t integrate it into my life." Read more Ray Minniecon "Whilst many of the promises the Government made have not been implemented, it pricked the conscience of a nation and was a turning point. When someone says “I’m sorry” then something changes in your spirit." Read more Jump to another country:B C D E H I L N P R S U Back to the top B Choose country: Belarus Bosnia Belarus (1 story) Irina Krasovskaya "If I think about them too much I start to dream of revenge so then I have stop myself because I know revenge will destroy me." Read more Bosnia (4 stories) Munira Beba Hadzic "Help and healing passed from hand to hand." Read more Jasna “So many victims feel they are to blame but being a victim does not mean you are guilty.” Read more Stanislav Krezic "At this time, the only way to get rid of my hatred for those who had made me suffer was to retaliate." Read more Kemal Pervanic "I decided not to hate because hating would have finished the job they’d started so successfully." Read more Jump to another group:A C D E H I L N P R S U Back to the top C Cambodia Canada Colombia Cambodia (1 story) Sokreaksa Himm "The anger against the killers was as great as the grief for my family and it burned inside me like a great ball of fire." Read more Canada (7 stories) Wilma Derksen "At times it was incredibly tough. People said we couldn’t have loved Candace because we forgave." Read more Christopher Emmanuel "My anger broke and tears filled my eyes as I cried the tears that I’d never been able to shed as a child." Read more Anne-Marie Hagan "Forgiveness cannot be conditional on remorse, because that would mean we can only forgive those who are sorry." Read more Katy Hutchison and Ryan Aldridge “Whether victim or perpetrator, part of being human is rolling up our sleeves and taking an active part in repairing harm.” Read more Tony McAleer "I learned that to hold the ideology of separation, or racism, you have to have a closed heart." Read more Shannon Moroney "I hated his actions, but I could not hate the person." Read more Margot van Sluytman "The moment I began to consider forgiveness, my whole body started to feel different, more complete and more at peace." Read more Colombia (1 story) Mark Henderson "Up until that point I think I could easily have forgiven Antonio and the kidnappers but meeting these women, and realising nothing had actually changed, made me angry." Read more Jump to another country:A B D E H I L N P R S U Back to the top D Denmark Denmark (1 story) Karsten Mathiasen "At first, I thought I was the great forgiver, but in the end I was the one to ask for forgiveness." Read more Jump to another country:A B C E H I L N P R S U Back to the top E Egypt England Egypt (1 story) Khaled al-Berry "The most dangerous thing in life is to let people become convinced that truth has just one face." Read more England (42 stories) Natalia Aggiano "I’d already lived most of my life with hatred for my Dad. I didn’t want it anymore." Read more Shad Ali "Forgiveness came from wondering how on earth someone could inflict that kind of pain on another human being without feeling anything." Read more Madeleine Black "I used to think that they were evil, but I started to understand that they didn’t come into this world that way." Read more Rosalyn Boyce “Whether victim or perpetrator, part of being human is rolling up our sleeves and taking an active part in repairing harm.” Read more Liz Brereton "In my view what he needed was psychotherapy, not prison." Read more Camilla Carr and Jon James "You have to work through layers to obtain forgiveness. First you have to deal with anger, then with tears, and only once you reach the tears are you on the road to finding peace of mind." Read more David "These boots are like my life - they've been healed, resoled and restored." Read more John Carter "Then a probation officer told me about restorative justice – a process that could help me understand empathy." Read more Julie Chimes "I refused to be pigeonholed as a grim faced victim, although this was the angle many photographers and journalists wanted" Read more Francis and Berthe Climbie "If you focus only on retribution you extinguish the very spirit and memory of your child." Read more Hanneke Coates "I thought I had forgiven my Japanese captors, and yet was always aware of the hairs rising in the nape of my neck when I heard a Japanese voice." Read more Anne-Marie Cockburn "I’ll never ever get justice for Martha because she’s dead so why waste two young lives instead of just one." Read more Jacob Dunne "I knew how important it was that I looked them in the eye and told them how sorry I was." Read more Marie Fatayi-Williams "At first I didn’t want to look at the face of Hasib Hussain, but eventually I did look...and what I saw was just a young man." Read more Mary Foley "I knew that if I didn’t forgive, anger and bitterness would turn me into a person Charlotte would not have liked." Read more Tracey Ford "I have a broken heart – splintered into a million pieces but each day I get up feeling I’m healing a little bit more." Read more Margaret Foxley "I arrived at the prison feeling all kinds of emotions, wondering how I’d cope with meeting this monster I’d almost begun to hate." Read more Denise Green "What happened was out of my control, but how I respond is within my control." Read more Sue Hanisch "I was able to stand back at last and see the bigger picture of my life and its meaning." Read more Gill Hicks "Through my experience and the sharing of my story, my work has helped create an alternative narrative." Read more Grace Idowu "When I recovered myself I told him, “I’m not crying for David, I’m crying for you. What have you done with your life?" Read more Matthew James "I’d gone from being a victim of crime to being able to see things more from Billy’s point of view." Read more Kathleen Key "I needed to know why he had been drinking; what had brought him to that point in his life where he had no thought for anyone else?" Read more Richard Levi "The experience bonds you and you want to honour the dead above all else." Read more Andrea Martinez "I realised that I was not in control of anyone except for myself and my emotions, and that they could only hurt me if I allowed them to." Read more Charlotte Maude "By suing we would only have succeeded in putting doctors off medicine. It seemed somehow vindictive." Read more Richard McCann "To give my mum’s killer a conscience would feel like revenge in a way." Read more Barry and Margaret Mizen "The only answer to the violence in our society is a peaceful response." Read more Jo Nodding "As I told him the impact of the offence, the terror and the confusion I felt that day, he actually cried. And I could see it was genuine." Read more Marian Partington "My work has been about connecting with Rosemary West’s humanity and refusing to go down the far easier path of demonizing her." Read more Denise Rhodes "When the police contacted me and asked if I wanted to be involved in a restorative justice meeting, I agreed." Read more David Rogers "I think we are beholden to try to understand as much as we can because you can’t make a proper judgment about anything unless you do." Read more Jayne Stewart "Can I forgive him for something he denies?" Read more Peter Tatchell "Without our willingness to forgive, there can be no hope of overcoming the historic conflict between queers and christianity." Read more Tom Tate "The act of friendship invites forgiveness." Read more Geoff Thompson "When you have tried and been failed by the judiciary and blood-lust turns you into a monster, what are you left with?" Read more Elizabeth Turner "Choosing the path to stop the cycle of violence is just as difficult as choosing the other path of anger and hatred." Read more Susan Waters "Blind forgiveness can allow abuse to thrive." Read more Michael Watson "Getting angry won't correct the past." Read more Simon Wilson "It was an acceptance really - not just that this is the way things are, but that this is the way things should be." Read more Peter Woolf and Will Riley "Until that moment I never knew that a burglary could make people feel sad, angry, depressed, guilty - yes guilty about things I'd done!" Read more Jump to another country:A B C D H I L N P R S U Back to the top H Hawaii Hungary Hawaii (2 stories) Linda Apo and Marilyn Vierra "Prison became a place of transformation for me." Read more Lorenn Walker "We can use suffering to find more meaningful lives." Read more Hungary (1 story) Gertrude Levi "To some extent my feelings from then on were paralysed; even today I am unable to grieve when someone I love dies." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E I L N P R S U Back to the top I Iceland India Iraq Ireland Israel Iceland (1 story) Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger "My forgiveness is an act of self-preservation, it comes white-hot from the whetstone and its purpose is solely to sever the ties." Read more India (1 story) Kia Scherr "My commitment became to be the opposite of a terrorist; to love like an extremist." Read more Iraq (1 story) Norman Kember "I worry that in my case forgiveness was too easy because it didn’t cost me anything." Read more Ireland (1 story) Dave Dineen "I dislike the term “victims” because it places a weight on people." Read more Israel (7 stories) Chen Alon "My children were human, and yet we had dehumanized the Palestinian children." Read more Idan Barir "Descending from this hilltop settlement into the town of Jenin was like going from heaven down into hell." Read more Ghazi Briegeith and Rami Elhanan "If Ghazi and I can talk and stand together after paying the highest price possible, then anyone can." Read more Yulie Cohen “I made friends with a Palestinian deportee and began to see that the so-called enemy were just people like him” Read more Robi Damelin "The first words that came out of my mouth were 'do not take revenge in the name of my son." Read more Oren Kalisman "In our unit we called the operation a ‘terror attack’. In another unit they went further and called it a ‘massacre’." Read more Zohar Shapira "At first I was running after children throwing stones. 12 years later I was shooting above children heads at their homes." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H L N P R S U Back to the top L Lebanon Lebanon (1 story) Assaad Emile Chaftari "I would venture into the jaws of hell if my story could shift just one person's views and move them away from violence." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I N P R S U Back to the top N New Zealand Northern Ireland Norway New Zealand (1 story) Susie Lomax "I’ve found that in order to forgive someone you have to pass a judgement on them in the first place. And I question that." Read more Northern Ireland (9 stories) Jo Berry and Patrick Magee "I'm beginning to realise that no matter which side of the conflict you're on, had we all lived each others lives, we could all have done what the other did." Read more Anne Gallagher "Forgiveness is a journey. Today you can forgive and tomorrow you can feel the pain all over again." Read more Gwen Gibson "I sent him a Christmas card just to say that I was sorry he was in trouble again, that he must stop offending and that I would like him to have a happy and worthwhile life." Read more Deborah Hollywood “I thought, if that was my son it would break my heart.” Read more Alistair Little "I don’t think I have a right to ask for forgiveness. It only adds insult to injury, and places yet another burden upon relatives and family members." Read more Noelle and Brendan McCauley "If offenders engage with restorative justice at a young age, you might be able to nip it in the bud." Read more Margaret McKinney "If I'd known who Brian's killers were I would have gone out and killed their children. I wanted them to know how it felt." Read more Martin Snoddon "I have had to seek forgiveness within myself and to reconcile my past and my present." Read more Jude Whyte "Most people won’t ever forgive because they see it as stampeding on the memory of their loved ones." Read more Norway (1 story) Bjørn Magnus Jacobsen Ihler "When Desmond Tutu suggested that Norway needs to forgive it caused massive outrage." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I L P R S U Back to the top P Pakistan Palestine Poland Pakistan (1 story) Mariane Pearl "Forgiveness is not a value strong enough to stand on. You have to win some sort of victory over the people who have hurt you." Read more Palestine (4 stories) Bassam Aramin "I was crying about the pain of my oppressors." Read more Riham Musa "Even though I was a little girl, I felt more powerful than the soldiers because I was the person with right on my side." Read more Wael Salame "If Palestinian freedom fighters and former Israeli soldiers can form a group with a common cause, then anyone can." Read more Nour Shehadah “Because everything I did was to defend my own land, I believe there is nothing I’ve done that I need forgiveness for.” Read more Poland (1 story) Eva Kor "I forgive not because they deserve it but because I deserve it." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I L N R S U Back to the top R Romania Rwanda Romania (1 story) Violeta and Petrica Danut Chereches "I want to have a little part of my mother. And to have that little part, I need to forgive." Read more Rwanda (4 stories) Mary Blewitt "If there are hundreds who have hurt you, how can you forgive?" Read more Philippe Ngirente and Teresphore Uzabakiriho "When he asked me to explain exactly how I killed his father so that he might forgive me, I started weeping." Read more Jean-Baptiste Ntakirutimana "(I met my mother's killer) to learn about what happened to my family and to initiate my own healing process." Read more Jean Paul Samputu “Some people don’t want to teach forgiveness to their children, even in the church, because they look in the mirror, and they cannot preach what they cannot do.” Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I L N P S U Back to the top S Scotland Senegal Sierra Leone South Africa Sudan Scotland (3 stories) Mike Haines "Initially I thought there were only a few voices in a desert calling for unity, tolerance and understanding but then I realised there was a whole forest out there." Read more Eric Lomax "The letter he wrote back was full of compassion, and I think at that moment I lost whatever hard armour I had wrapped around me and began to think the unthinkable." Read more Magdeline Makola "Forgiveness is different from trusting. You don’t have to trust someone just because they are forgiven." Read more Senegal (1 story) Salimata Badji-Knight "Before he died, I was able to have a good talk with my father. I opened my heart to him and explained how female circumcision could affect you physically and mentally." Read more Sierra Leone (2 stories) Satta Joe "As I took his hand I was sobbing - not out of despair but a sense of relief that perhaps now we could move on." Read more Brima Koker "I said that some of the things we did during the war were terrible and we shouldn’t have done them." Read more South Africa (9 stories) Linda Biehl and Easy Nofemela "I have come to believe passionately in restorative justice." Read more Christo Brand and Vusumzi Mcongo "We cannot live with broken hearts. In time we have to accept these things have happened to us. To stay with the past will only bring you into turmoil." Read more Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele "I have come to understand forgiveness as a process which involves the principled decision to give up your justifiable right to revenge." Read more Duma Kumalo “I don't want to be like them. I don't hate them.” Read more Michael Lapsley "I haven’t forgiven anyone, because I have no one to forgive. No one was charged with this crime, and so for me forgiveness is still an abstract concept." Read more Leatitia "How can you ask forgiveness of others, if you can't forgive yourself?" Read more Desmond Tutu "To forgive is not just to be altruistic, it is the best form of self-interest." Read more Joan van Blerk and Collin Ketshabile "When we met I just saw this nice young man who had nothing to do with the person who'd broken into my life. They were two separate people, and I've kept them as two separate people ever since." Read more Sudan (1 story) Nyatuel Chuol Thok Loklok "As small children, we played with guns. So I adopted that as my way of life. By the time I was eleven, I had a militaristic mindset. I knew even then that if you didn’t have a gun, someone could come and take your wife away." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I L N P R U Back to the top U Uganda Ukraine USA Uganda (1 story) Odongtoo Jimmy "People may see me as a perpetrator, but I'm also a victim because I did not choose to kill." Read more Ukraine (1 story) Vladimir Khodosk "I do not forgive those who are responsible. Would you?" Read more USA (35 stories) Brenda Adelman "During the process I realised forgiveness also meant resolving inner conflict and clearing my heart of hate; it meant that if I thought about my father my day wasn’t wrecked anymore." Read more Stacy Bannerman "I knew that I could have been them, and they me and there was nothing left to forgive." Read more Penny Beernsten "The most difficult thing in all this is being able to forgive myself." Read more Matthew Boger & Tim Zaal Forgiving myself is an ongoing process, a daily practice. It probaby will be until the day I die. Read more Terry Caffey “I told them that killing these boys would not bring my family back.” Read more Stephanie Cassatly "That brand of forgiveness was for extremists who went on Oprah." Read more Rebecca DeMauro "I knew that if something didn’t change I would be in the graveyard, dead from a broken heart, next to my little daughter." Read more Zak Ibrahim "In that instant, I realized how much negative energy it takes to hold hatred inside of you." Read more Hashim Garrett "I soon found out that forgiveness was the hardest word to say in public." Read more Lynette D. Grace "My mission now is to work with Johnny to offer a story of healing, forgiveness and restoration in the hope of inspiring others." Read more Cathy Harrington "There's so much we can't explain but we need to be able to love the questions." Read more Janis Hillard "Forgiveness is removing the power and control he had over me and replacing my anger and resentment with joy and love" Read more Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel "It’s not easy for us to stand next to each other and share our story but I say to other mothers that talking and sharing your story is the road to healing." Read more Mwalimu Johnson "Forgiveness is not a matter of doing anything heroic." Read more Pardeep Kaleka "I thought I was experiencing post-traumatic stress, but actually what I’m experiencing is post-traumatic growth." Read more Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix "I reached the conclusion that there were victims at both ends of the gun." Read more Gayle Kirschenbaum "Compassion for my mother helped me handle her insults and criticism." Read more Samantha Lawler "Forgiveness is not about forgiving the act but forgiving the imperfections which are inherent in all of us." Read more Scarlett Lewis "Forgiveness is central to my resilience." Read more TJ Leyden "I was the first neo-Nazi to voluntarily and publically give up the movement and hand over racist material and evidence." Read more Tom Mauser "Our goal is to honor Daniel with acts of hope, and not mar our memory of him with anger or hatred or despair." Read more Debbie McLeland "I wanted to go to court for justice - not revenge." Read more Celia McWee "My anger is entirely directed towards myself for turning my back on my son when he needed me most." Read more Arno Michaelis "It was the unconditional forgiveness I was given by people who I once claimed to hate that demonstrated for me the way from there to here." Read more Ish Kode Bish Iki/Morris (Doc) Mosey "The abuse remains embedded within my people. It is very difficult to step outside the historical trauma." Read more Sammy Rangel "I went into prison as a street punk and came out as a brutal leader with a killer mentality." Read more Andrew Rice "Those people crying loudest for retribution so often seem to be the least affected." Read more Phyllis Rodriguez and Aicha el-Wafi "When I watched Zacarias at the trial my heart was broken because I could not look at him as a stranger. He is the son of my friend." Read more Victoria Ruvolo "I wanted to know what type of kid would do this? Had he always been a bully? Was he always hurting other people?" Read more Dr. Chuck Sandstrom "Forgiveness is first and foremost a way of seeing. It cannot change the facts about the world we live in but it can change the way we see those facts." Read more Aqeela Sherills and Calvin Hodges "I believe in the concept that where the wounds are, the gift lies." Read more Mathew Shurka "Being angry is exhausting and time consuming – it took me away from what really mattered to me, pursuing my dreams and living a life that I love." Read more Liz Stone "Not wanting to be judged by the mistakes of my past made it easier to see the humanity in others and to forgive." Read more Judith Toy "I had forgiven Charles, not condoned what he did. And I was still afraid of him." Read more Bud Welch "About a year before the execution I found it in my heart to forgive Tim McVeigh. It was a release for me rather than for him." Read more Jump to another country:A B C D E H I L N P R S Stories | Countries | Questions | Themes