EMPOWER PROGRAM: A stellar instrument of community healing, social reintegration, and social cohesion

In Rwanda, a country that has experienced immense trauma following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, CARSA’s Empower Program became a stellar space to provide a conducive environment for survivors and perpetrators to walk together in wound debridement, enhanced social cohesion, and social-economy development to build their common better future.

The Empower program was initiated in 2014 in partnership with CARSA with Compelled By Love (CBL), an Australian-based organization that is committed to seeing things made right where poverty and brokenness exist. About 3,000 individuals from Kamonyi and Muhanga Districts in Southern Rwanda were part of these seven-day sessions that significantly alleviated the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The latest Empower was conducted from 9th to 17th January 2024, CARSA in Kabacuzi Sector, Muhanga District in Southern Rwanda. Unlike other Empower editions, this edition did not only bring up genocide victims versus offenders, but it also opened the doors for members of families in conflict and cohabitating families (non-legal marriage families) to create a family conducive place that allows the children to thrive.

On the last day of empowerment, all 5 cohabitating families made legal marriages, and individuals who lived in the conflict had successfully reconciled and promised the public to live in harmony with them and the entire community.

Aline Mukundwa, 44-year-old, a resident of Muhanga District in Southern Rwanda, like many others, has been striving to overcome the trauma she experienced in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

The Genocide happened when She was only 14, her father was Tutsi and her mother belonged to the Hutu ethnic group and witnessed how his father was brutally slain with a machete by his Godfather before her eyes.

After her father's death, the struggles started there, as she hid with her mother in the banana plant and when they tried to go to her Uncle's house to seek for a den, her Aunt kicked them out even though her mother had only 7 days baby, they survived the atrocities of the Genocide. This was the catalyst for a life of misery and despair, plunging her into a deep state of trauma and depression.

After attending a seven-day workshop, a healing space along with 35 other people from her neighborhood who were facing the same challenges, Aline recognized that the therapy had quietly started changing her life. “I no longer feel depressed; my vengeance thoughts have slowly started to go, taking other people as animals, and now I can smile or direct my thoughts as I learned the new approaches to producing happy chemicals,” she narrated.

Mr. Mbonyingabo Christophe, Co-founder and Executive Director of CARSA in his closing remarks urges the participants to put into practice what they have learned in the Empower to overcome the trauma caused by the bad history and build up sustainable resilience in their lives and the entire country.

“Wounds or trauma never get healed by time; healing requires emotional support from right person to sustain you towards the journey of healing.” Mr. Mbonyingabo said.