Teaching into a programme for reconciliation and reintegration of genocide perpetrators

 

Today was the final day in Rwanda, and the final day of the 360Life training that I’ve been giving to a group comprising prison chaplains and outreach workers for children living on the streets of Kigali.

As I’ve said before, I love delivering the training and hearing from the participants about the varied ways in which they can see it positively impacting them personally, as well as speaking into their family life, their relationships, and their ministries. So, it’s partly about how they implement their new knowledge into bringing about change and healing in their own lives, and partly about how they use the knowledge to help bring about change and healing in the lives of those they are supporting and ministering to.

The training today mainly consisted of the participants working in pairs to develop and deliver presentations on aspects of the 360Life materials, in a way that would be suitable for the beneficiaries that they work with. For example, one group related it to their work with the children living on the streets, one group delivered it as they would to a group of prison inmates, and another group delivered it as they would to a team of prison officers.

The presentations were fab, and it felt so satisfying and fulfilling to see just how much they had taken the info on board, thought it through, and applied it to their ministry. It was also really insightful to be part of conversations reflecting on how the teaching can play a part in reviewing and updating programmes to prepare genocide perpetrators to be released from prison and move back to the community. This is a process of reconciliation that is still going on, 30 years after the horrific genocide of 1994, and church leaders and prison chaplains are often called on by the prison service to help with preparing both perpetrators and victims. Listening to the prison chaplains today, it was evident that processes of reintegration and reconciliation have not always gone well in the past, and the search for a better way is ongoing. I’m not saying that what I’ve been sharing is the magic bullet, but what was clear was that the chaplains felt more informed and prepared to be able to support those perpetrators and victims better in the future.

If, as a result of this training, even one process of reconciliation and reintegration goes better, then the development of the materials has been time well spent. I’m not interested in creating a big global brand or anything like that with these materials – although if that’s part of God’s plan for it then I’m happy to comply. But if the materials can help to bring about identity, healing, wellbeing and hope for those who have experienced trauma, then that’s a prayer answered. Today, I got another glimpse of how that might be come to be – thank you God for that glimpse.

 

A good start to the training workshop

 

Today was day one of a 3-day workshop delivering the 360Life materials to a group of staff and volunteers who work for GNPDR, the CRED Partner based here in Rwanda. The aim of the training is to train the participants up so that they can deliver the materials themselves and get the knowledge out more widely and in the local language, in a way that I just don’t have the capacity or resources to do.

Of those involved in the training, 2 deliver the street kids programme, 3 are prison chaplains, 2 deliver mental health training, and 3 are church leaders who give voluntary additional support to the prison chaplaincy programme. Topics that we looked at today included a simple overview understanding of how the brain works, and how some key different parts of the brain interact with each other, influence each other, and have a bearing on decision making, problem solving, behaviour, learning and interpersonal skills. We also looked at the effects of trauma on the brain, including childhood trauma; the links between trauma and mental health; and ways in which individuals will approach tasks in different ways due to the unique ways in which they are wired (and not because they are just trying to be annoying by not doing things the same way as us).

It was a great day, and the participants really got stuck in with the conversations, practical applications, and reflective times. It was during some of those reflective times that I was humbled by the implications of just how important the participants saw this training to be, and the potential that they saw for it to transform lives.

One participant spoke of a troubled young person that they were trying to support who had been rejected by the rest of the family, after months of deteriorating relationship between parents and the young person. The backstory of this young person included all manner of dysfunctional and or absent support from the parents and had now reached the stage whereby the young person had left home, been caught doing drugs, sleeping around, and generally making life choices that were perhaps not the wisest options. Until today, the participant said that she had run out of ideas on how to try and help or even understand the young person, and just didn’t know where to start in trying to make any progress with her. But today, as we looked at childhood trauma and the impact it can have on the brain, things started to become clearer. The participant spoke of being able to see the situation of the young person in a new way that made sense when set against the context of her past, and she started to determine some strategies for what to try next to help the young person.

Another participant, who has done the training before and so is doing it this time as a refresher, testified to how the course opened up his mind to new ways to understand people, and why they are the way they are, including his wife! He also spoke about the troubles from his past as a result of parents addicted to alcohol, and the trauma he had experienced as the oldest sibling trying to care for them. The 360Life materials had given him a new perspective through which to view various parts of his history and the influence of his history on his current life; and also a lens through which to better understand some of the behaviours shown by his younger siblings.

More reflections were shared about how the knowledge being gained will help to engage with the various service users of GNPDR programmes: prison inmates, street kids, families of the prisoners, prison staff. And how the knowledge will better equip the GNPDR staff and volunteers to have a trauma-informed approach to their ministry rather than being problem-focussed in their approach.

I always love giving this training, as it is always so well received and seems to very much fill a gap in the knowledge of those who are seeking to provide really valuable and much-needed services and support to extremely broken, vulnerable and marginalized sectors of society. Today was no different.

As I spend time trying to discern what my main foci are going to be in this new post-doctoral phase of my life, I am getting a strong sense through the conversations and the feedback from others, that 360Life is there to stay. I’m certainly not ready to turn my back on it, or on the people who are so passionate about finding ways to get the knowledge out into their nations.

Ntwari, Mateo and Umutoni

 The primary project that CRED supports here in Rwanda is the Street-Kids programme run by our CRED Partner GNPDR.

The two project staff are Angelique and Jeremiah, and it is always such a joy and inspiration to spend time with them. One aspect of their work is outreach into three sites in Kigali where the street kids congregate. They go to each site once a week, on the same day, and at the same time, to give some structure and continuity to the lives of the youngsters living such chaotic, dysfunctional lives on the streets as they just focus on trying to survive and get through each day.

Another side to the project is the family reintegration work, and getting the young people back into school when they are ready. 

As a non-Rwandan, I'm not allowed to be seen going to visit the youngsters on the streets, but yesterday I did have the absolute privilege of meeting three youngsters who are now back in school. They each shared their story with me, and have given me permission to share with you, including their photos. I have changed their names in order to protect identity. 

 

Ntwari

Ntwari is 15 years old and currently in primary 6 (top year of primary). His mum has been in prison since he was small – just two or three years old. Initially, the neighbours originally looked after him and his sister, but after a few years this got less reliable, especially for Ntwari because he was a boy. So about 4 or 5 years ago he gave up on being able to go to school and ran off to Kigali and started living on the streets at the Kiduruduru site as had nowhere else to go.

In 2022, he started responding to the GNPDR street kids programme, where Jeremiah and Angelique, the programme staff, offered a listening ear, access to health care, and counselling.  This also included encouragement to return to school, and in 2023 Ntwari decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, there was too much peer pressure from other street kids, and he didn’t stay at school for long but went back to the streets. However, once back on the streets he reconnected with the GNPDR team, who continued to support him and give him encouragement and hope.

Earlier this year, Ntwari decided to try again with school, and this time it has all worked out. He is now living with foster carers and has decided that he is going to continue with school until he completes it. He’d then like to be a driver so that he can travel and discover more of Rwanda and Africa. GNPDR give some financial support for his school fees to reduce the burden on his foster carers.

 

 

Mateo

Mateo is 22yrs old, in primary 5 class, and has spent most of his life living on the streets. During that time he did drugs, and glue, and had periods of time in and out of detention. He always had links with his mum and siblings, and sometimes would live at home for a while, but his mum struggled to cope with them all. Being at home never seemed to work out, and each time he’d return to the streets. Most of his siblings have also spent time on and off the streets, and his younger brother still spends a lot of times there.

For Mateo, life has had a complete turnaround. He now goes to church and sings in the choir, and is living at home with all the family except for the one younger brother who still finds the streets too much of a pull.

When asked what was it that prompted him to turn his life around, Mateo said that it was a few things. When he was on the drugs, he felt like he was hearing voices telling him to stop taking drugs. His sister was also forever begging him to stop taking drugs and try going to church instead. And then there were Angelique and Jeremiah from the GNPDR street kids programme, who showed him so much care and acceptance, even when he’d just come out of the detention centre and also encouraged him to come off the drugs and consider going back to school.

So, the reason he stopped doing the drugs, and is now back at school, was a combination of all the messages that he heard over and over again. In the end he just started believing them, and he decided to listen to them and take notice. Being released from the detention this past time felt like the opportunity he needed to start over in a new way, so he moved home with mum and went back to school, thanks in part to financial support from GNPDR to pay for school fees contribution. Thankfully, as he is not very tall, and has a young-looking face, he fits in with the rest of the students, even though he’s probably 7 – 9 years older than the rest of the class.

If Mateo does well at his Primary 6 exams (national school leavers certificate), he would like to go on and do senior school, but if not he’ll do some vocational training course instead. Ideally though, he’d like to be a pilot.

As for the younger sibling, Mateo keeps telling him to stop taking drugs just like he was always being told. In this way, Mateo hopes that it will result in his brother coming off the streets like he has done.

 

 

Umutoni

Umutoni is 16 years old and was just three years old when her parents separated and her mum moved out leaving the girl in the care of her father. Initially it was OK for her living with her dad, but when he remarried, and step-siblings came along, Umutoni’s step-mother wanted nothing further to do with Umutoni and threw her out of the family home. In danger of being homeless, Umutoni went to her mother who by now had also remarried. She lived there for a while, but the step-father started abusing and violating her, and eventually Umutoni had no choice but to leave and went to the streets.

Throughout all of this time, Umutoni had tried to keep her education going, but it was very hard, especially as parents are expected to pay some contrbutions towards school fees and educational materials. Once Umutoni was living on the streets, she could not manage to find enough money to do this, and so she had to leave school. She tried to get temporary bits of work as a housemaid, or washing clothes etc, but that barely made enough money for her to buy food and it was all a big struggle.

Umutoni feels that her fortunes turned when she met Angelique and Jeremiah from the GNPDR street kids programme. She says that on meeting them she found two people who showed care and concern, and who wanted to listen to her and help her. They encouraged her to go back to school, and so she plucked up the courage and went back to her father and asked him if he would help with the fees. Sadly he said that he couldn’t afford to give her anything for school, although she could stay with him and stepmother if she wanted.

At that point, Umutoni was so disappointed that she couldn’t bear the thought of staying, and she went back to the streets again. That is where Jeremiah and Angelique found her, and continued to engage with her, slowly by slowly helping her to believe in herself and humanity again, and to have hope for the future. When GNPDR were able to offer her some help with the school fees and educational materials, Umutoni grabbed the offer with both hands, and not only returned to school, but also returned to her father and stepmother for accommodation, and a base that is more stable than being on the streets.

Umutoni says that through GNPDR she has learnt to care for others, and to hope again. She is currently in Senior 2 (goes up to senior 6), and ultimately she would like to become a doctor.

 

 

I hope you find their stories inspiring, and if you'd like to help any more young people get off the streets and back into school then do let me know.