Miss Africa Denmark supports Rwanda

Every year the proceeds from the Miss Africa show are donated to development projects in Africa. In 2009 we have chosen to support a project to improve trauma treatment in Rwanda.

Between loneliness and unity – trauma treatment for orphans in Rwanda

Background:

The genocide in Rwanda, 1994, is often described as “the most effective genocide of the 20th century”. Besides destroying economic and social structures, most of the population experienced violence, death and abuse - first hand. Former perpetrators and victims live side by side, and though the genocide officially ended nearly 15 years ago, the juridical aftermath is still on-going. Thus, the genocide is continuously present in everyday-living - in which people continue to struggle with their own traumatic experiences. Unfortunately, the current health system has very limited resources within the mental health sector – both concerning financial and personal resources; in Rwanda there is, at the moment, one psychiatrist and few psychologists working. Within the medical studies the sessions on relevant issues are limited as well, and it is not possible for physicians to specialize as psychiatrists in Rwanda. In other words: Psychiatric and psychological knowledge and know-how is a commodity in high command in this society which is profoundly traumatized in so many ways.

Implementation and partners:

Medical students Mental Health Association (MMHA) is the Rwandan organization which has developed the present project based on their experiences with the still on-going Mental Health Empowerment Project. Thus, it is MMHA who is the main responsible for implementation of the project.

The Danish partner called Mental Health Rwanda (MHR) is the main responsible of the budget and will work in close cooperation with MMHA – embracing their role as project co-consultants. MHR is an organisation under International Medical Cooperation Committee (IMCC), the Danish medical students’ international organisation.

Area of interest:

Many children lost their parents during the genocide. In addition to the financial and social insecurity that follows from loosing parents, these orphans had to deal with missed educational opportunities, severe emotional losses and being witnesses to deeply traumatizing events. Together these factors represent challenging living conditions for everyone – but in particular for children and youth.

Goals and target-group:

There is an acute need of 40 medical- and psychology students to be trained in the area of psycho-education (education on trauma reactions/ Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and possible coping strategies) in the hope of improving living conditions for 200 orphans in Rwanda’s southern province.

Planning of the donation:

To meet the special needs of this particular target group, MMHA (Rwanda) and MHR (Denmark) will, in cooperation, arrange:

• A seminar that is developed specifically to dealing with traumatized youth and children. 40 members of MMHA will participate in the seminar and will afterwards make up the project taskforce.
• A 2 days workshop with 200 orphans.
• A follow-up of the workshop sessions.
• Final evaluation of the course.

Content of the seminar:

The seminar will focus on educating the orphans on psychological implications of trauma such as PTSD, grief reactions when loosing close relatives (special focus on parental loss), psycho-education, communication, psychological counselling and capacity building in the local community. The overall idea is that the target group itself will be empowered to take part in creating their own future – a future which will holds new opportunities for personal growth and positive living. The seminar comprises teaching modules, discussions and group work.

Workshop and follow-up:

The goal of the workshop is to educate the orphans about normal reactions to trauma and mourning reactions, and how you, yourself can shape your own developmental possibilities. Afterwards the task force will work on capacity building by helping the orphans to carry out their own in-come generating projects. Adjoining activities includes a follow-up visit for support and monitoring of the initiated activities.