Over 400 people were admitted to different hospitals and other trauma handling centres during the various Genocide commemoration events. In a phone interview with Mukamana Delite, the head of trauma counselling department at Nyanza memorial centre, she revealed that despite the big numbers of people who were admitted for trauma, many are recovering. “Just like it has always happened in this period, we received quite a number of trauma cases but since we were prepared we transferred them to the various hospitals and trauma handling centres where they got intervention and many are recovering” revealed Mukamana. On April 7, over 100 people became traumatised in Nyarugenge and many of them were admitted to respective hospitals for treatment. 102 got affected at the stadium during the Genocide vigil night of which 53 were immediately admitted in hospitals, while 86 got traumatised during a ceremony to give a proper burial to the remains of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. On April 11 over 50 people got the same problem from the various commemoration sites and many were transferred to CHUK and Icyizere trauma handling unit where counsellors and doctors were ready to receive them. This Genocide commemoration is a normally difficult period for survivors because it reopens the wounds and the horrors they witnessed during the massacres, most of them being vivid memories of how their loved ones were killed. “During trauma, I am faced with a difficult time of revisiting the situation when a man was cutting my brother with a machete. It is so scary and every time I pray I overcome that memory,” reveals Wibabara Yvonne, a Genocide survivor. One of the trauma patients who broke down during the vigil night at the stadium was crying for help and begging not to be cut. There are currently fewer trauma counsellors compared to the ever increasing numbers of trauma cases in the country, and there is lack of a well facilitated trauma centre with professionals in trauma counsellors to deal with the cases. Among the groups of people who get traumatised are Genocide survivors, killers and those who returned and found dead bodies floating in river and many others scattered all over. Ends
