Student survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, under their association AERG (Association des Etudiants et Elèves Rescapés du Genocide), have launched an initiative to fight the trauma prevailing among student survivors - something that has hindered their academic performance.

The initiative was launched on Friday during a meeting to discuss AERG’s 2010-2012 action plan.

The association’s national coordinator, Egide Gatari, announced that they had already come up with strategies.

"We are going to set up ‘families’ comprising 15-20 students who will be providing trauma counselling services and moral support to their colleagues,” he said.

"The lives of these student survivors continue to be bleak. They feel helpless, vulnerable and humiliated or under constant mockery.”

Jean de Dieu Mucyo, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), commended the initiative saying that it will contribute to overcoming trauma; a phenomenon that survivors countrywide are battling to deal with.

Mucyo called for a strong collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

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