Genocide trauma cases highest among youth –report

KIGALI - The Ministry of Health has revealed that the youth constitute the largest number of post-Genocide trauma cases in the country. Addressing stakeholders at the National Commission for the fight against Genocide (CNLG) Thursday, Nancy Claire Misango a research officer in the Ministry said that youth between the ages of 15 – 21 are the most affected. “We need to find ways of helping many of our young people who are traumatized by effects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The majority of these are students,” Misango told several stakeholders from various ministries and Non Government Organizations. Dr Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, a Commissioner with CNLG also revealed that women constitute 85 percent of patients the Ministry of Health receives for treatment. He called for a sensitization campaign on trauma in different parts of the country, saying this will promote prevention of the ordeal by learning its early signs other than waiting for its negative effects. “We should make use of local leaders at every level of administration to recognise trauma. Teachers should also help us in this exercise because the majority of the cases are in schools,” he said. The meeting organized quarterly by CNLG was aimed at engaging various stakeholders in finding ways of controlling trauma-related cases ahead of the 16th Genocide Commemoration ceremony in April that will focus on Post-Genocide trauma. Participants cautioned against the habit of only helping trauma patients during the Genocide commemoration period and called for a new approach to giving continuous attention to trauma-related cases before and after commemoration. Ends