Trauma Counselling Support for Widow and Orphans
Many women and children have experienced severe trauma since the genocide due to the horrific killings they witnessed, the loss of their families as well as their experiences of survival and sexual violence. They continue to harbour their feelings of despair, loneliness, hatred, anger and many have not been able to share the stories of what they experienced as it is too emotional or shameful.
Healing can result from the opportunity to release of these feelings in a safe and supported environment. Once these feeling can be brought into the open and released, healing can take place. Healing can then open up opportunities to move on with living. www.JubileeAction.co.uk
INSPIRE!africa Activities:
Inspire!Africa is supporting programs for counselling women and children so they can move away from these debilitating feelings and on with caring for their families, pursuing education and training and taking on meaningful work. Funds will pay for staff to travel to outlying communities and set up support groups so rural women have opportunities for peer counselling. In addition, support will be provided to subsidize travel costs for rural women and children to attend counselling programs in nearby centres.
Our local partner for this program is Solace Ministries. Solace is a Rwanda registered non-profit organization based in Kigali and operating in many communities throughout the country. It supports traumatised widows and orphans of the genocide, especially people living with HIV/AIDS. Solace helps survivors to restore their desire to live. Most of the individuals assisted by Solace lost their entire families during the conflict and many of the widows experienced multiple rape. In addition to counselling, Solace programs also include; child care and development programmes; community development programmes; health and relief; capacity building and research, vocational training and computer skills for widows and orphans to re-build their lives.
