Main Feature: Vulnerable groups need more than material support

There you are, bored, restless and somehow the spirit of doing good wells up in you. You wonder what exactly you can put your positive energy into. Then you remember your last Sunday sermon and it was on giving. Then you visit an orphanage with a sack of your old clothes, shoes, name it. You leave feeling relieved. You have contributed to alleviating human suffering. Could that be all it takes or is there a lot more work involved? Recently, I visited Gisimba orphanage. Damas Gisimba, the head of this orphanage, narrated to me a rather disturbing ordeal. It was of a child who slipped out of the gate, climbed a tall MTN antenna and attempted to jump. It took a lot of cajoling and pleading from the caretakers and onlookers for the 8 year old to abandon what would have resulted in sure death suicidai madness. Interestingly, this incident was narrowed to family spirits disturbing the young boy. The truth of the matter is that this incident is just one of the many happening elsewhere in the country amongst vulnerable groups. The most affected being those who have been traumatized by the cruel fate that befell them. Living in the post 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, which carries so many bizarre social implications still directly or indirectly haunting a huge segment of the population, a wide range of supportive interventions have been put in place. Government and other humanitarian groups in and outside the country have devoted a lot of effort and resources towards improving the lives of genocide survivors, orphans and other vulnerable groups. The support has covered aspects like education through such funds as FARG for genocide survivors, constructing houses for them and starting income generating projects for some. Among the many projects include one of hiring out tents and chairs run by the orphans staying in Kicukiro Niboye sector. This has improved their lives because they can at timesaccess basic supplies and food. However, as much as that support has been invaluable most especially as regards securing the future of many vulnerable children through education and welfare provision, most of these people have missed out on some crucial elements of growth and development. Viewing it from a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) perspective and the historical perspective, (1994 genocide against the Tutsi), many of these have undergone various psychological setbacks. They thus need psychosocial support more than anything else. Material support is good but it should come after a foundation of emotional and psychological healing has been formed. Because this takes time, it can be slowly complemented by the other support. Although still on a small scale, there have been some psychosocial support programmes put in place under the supervision of Ibuka, an umbrella association of genocide survivors. This department is charged with rehabilitating and counselling genocide survivors who are up to now undergoing problems of trauma stemming from the horrible experiences they underwent during genocide. According to Adelite Mukamana the coordinator of the trauma department based at Ibuka Headquarters in Nyanza-Kicukiro, each district in Rwanda was allocated one counsellor to be conducting trauma counselling and other psychological rehabilitation activities. Due to the overwhelming number of trauma cases there was need to train psychosocial assistants. These are supposed to handle cases on the ground and report the complex ones to the counsellors. “We have trained 360 psychosocial assistants in the whole country whom we monitor and supervise. They help us identify complex cases as well as handling some patients. They also go with the survivors to Gacaca courts in case of a breakdown during testimonies,” explained Mukamana. She also revealed that trauma counselling is done through group or individual counselling. The latter is subjected to complex cases, for instance those who were violently raped and are undergoing dire side effects of such horrible experiences. Other rehabilitation programs include social-economic healing through community based projects. This also empowers them to contribute to their welfare, facilitated by social workers. The intervention is supposed to be packaged in a multi-disciplinary fashion. Among the challenges sited by the trauma counselling practitioners is the limited number of counsellors which does not match the overwhelming number of traumatized people.Poverty is another challenge. Many of the vulnerable people on top of the psychological healing also need economic healing. The economic projects are so few and under funded. They thus can’t help the many people in need of social-economic healing. There are also those who badly cut during the genocide and can’t get appropriate medical attention locally. They need to go abroad for professional attention. Without this, the healing process is grossly affected.bShe further sited that there are only two counselling centres in the country, one run by Ibuka and another by MINISANTE. “There is need for other psychosocial support centres and an independent trauma centre equipped with fully fledged professionals and the required equipment for clinical psychology,” Mukamana observed. Accordingly, due to the overwhelming numbers, the counsellors only attend to the severe cases which are forwarded or identified by the psychosocial assistants. Mukamana called upon the government and other development partners to strengthen the practice of trauma counseling both in facilitating training of more professionals, coordination of activities and opening up new and improved centers. She also urged the entire public to refrain from handling traumatized people with contempt and stigma because that kind of treatment intensifies their problems. However, due to inadequate guidance and counselling on how to live happily and responsibly, coupled with limited counselling for these people to overcome the emotional and psychological setbacks that influence their lives, they some times turn against each other and do weird things, due to the uncoordinated psychological dispositions they suffer from. A child in Kicukiro orphaned by the genocide is currently under detention for allegedly attempting to rape and assault a fellow survivor. He apparently admitted that he was guilty of it. Most of the orphanages and genocide survivors homes are formatted into families with each having elders and children just like an ordinary family. The intention is to make these people get a feel of family life. The last thing the survivors need is Isolation. They need people to talk to them, listen to them and even encourage them. Most of them comprise of children below 17 who need constant advice from elders, but orphanages or their own villages sometimes provide queer conditions for them. There are also cases of housing for genocide survivors who are now homeless yet they were initially given houses. These are survivors who were given houses and sold them off citing reasons such as, the location of those houses bringing back the gruesome memories of the cruelty they suffered during genocide. It appears that there was no needs assessment done before constructing these houses. Consideration of the fact that some of these places where they were constructed houses for, are the real places their families were massacred should have been taken. Such locations sometimes bring back the gruesome memories hence intensifying the trauma. This in the end has led to many survivors fleeing these areas opting for relocation to Kigali and other places where they may not have resources to maintain them. Although there is virtually nothing that can be done to bring back what these people lost or take back the experiences they underwent, we should try to see that they live a happier life through supporting them in whatever way possible. The goal for helping vulnerable groups should not be taking them softly through life but empowering them to be strong, hardworking and responsible citizens who can sustain themselves. Contact: gahimore@yahoo.com