Graduate Genocide survivors to host seminar on trauma

Survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi who are graduates from different institutions of higher learning have through their organization GAERG, organised a seminar on trauma with aim to seeking deeper understanding of trauma and how best to address it. Trauma remains one of the major challenges that Rwandans, most especially survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi 24 years, face after the Genocide in which over a million people were killed. According to the GAERG coordinator, Olivier ‘Camarade’ Mazimpaka, the seminar, which will take place on June 2, will among others feature trauma experts from the US. It will be held under the theme; “Get free, stay free of trauma”. “It is not intended to stop people from crying; it is all right to cry, but it is to step out of that fear; so when you come and remember your loved ones, the next morning, you will go back to work healthy enough to compete at the labour market,” he said. Mazimpaka said they will discuss primarily physical, genetic and spiritual environmental aspects of trauma. “The trauma can be transmitted to children; sometimes children grow up with parents who have trauma, this terrifies them without even being aware of the whole history but looking at their parents’ behaviors,” said Mazimpaka. “Most of us do not know how to talk to our children about this [genocide], when watching TV, a child asks a question and you immediately stop them or you change the channel to avoid their questions,” he said. Trauma can also be the root cause of addiction; someone can be addicted to some habits - including substance abuse – as a way of concealing trauma; the seminar will be discussing about that too, explained Mazimpaka. “It is to make sure that we remember but also rebuilding ourselves in all ways,” he pointed out.

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Graduate Genocide survivors to host seminar on trauma