AVEGA officials train genocide survivors on trauma

EASTERN PROVINCE RWAMAGANA—As trauma continues to be the biggest personal aftershock to the 1994 Genocide, the AVEGA women’s Genocide survivor association is looking to tackle the issue in a one-week training seminar. “The aim is to equip women survivors of the Genocide with rehabilitation and healing messages that will help them against trauma cases,” said Agnes Musengimana, counsellor for AVEGA. The seminar is taking place at the AVEGA centre in Rwamagana. “These trainings are ever continuous,” Musengimana says. “We know their hearts are ever trembling because of what happened to them during the Genocide. They need to be comforted, rehabilitated and in so doing we heal their inside miseries.” Evelyn Nyirabimenyimana, a widow and survivor of the Genocide from Bugesera said trauma wasn’t simply about rehashing old memories. “Common cases of trauma surface during periods of mourning, but due to the ongoing Gacaca trials, many more other cases of trauma are coming up. For instance when Genocide survivors raise facts against someone who participated in Genocide and these facts are ignored and the suspect is declared innocent by Gacaca courts; this becomes one of the causes of trauma.” Ends