Thank you.
Thank you for the invitation to address this committee, to offer witness to the Rwandan crisis, now 20 years post-genocide against the Tutsis.
My name is Glenda Dubienski. I'm a Canadian and a resident of Rwanda. Today I'm speaking on behalf of myself, but for the purpose of adding context, I'm a counsellor by profession, co-founder of HOPEthiopia, and the vision holder and director of HOPEthiopia, Rwanda. I will be sharing from my five-year experience as one working to help empower Rwandese youth and young adults, particularly those who were orphaned in the 1994 genocide.
The scope of my involvement includes facilitating wraparound support of both males and females 18 to 35 years of age, defined by Rwandans as youth and young adults, for the purpose of assisting them towards self-reliance. Given the complexities of my obvious ignorance of Rwandan culture, it became apparent at the onset of my work that partnering with local Rwandan-founded NGOs was essential. Today I work with and help support several such NGOs, whose great work was threatened due to lack of resources.
Considering the work I did with Congolese refugees a couple of years ago, I recognize there are some similarities between Rwandan and eastern Congo cultures. I hope my witness will shed light not only on Rwanda's recovery from crisis but also on how you might proceed in assisting the DRC recover.
I apologize in advance for using terminology related to once-defined people groups that are no longer politically correct. These terms were used during the 1994 crisis, and their usage allows for easier explanation. Thank you.
The issue of gender equality is of primary importance to the Rwandan government. To refresh your memories, Rwanda's Vision 2020, which was drafted 14 years ago, set its eye on achieving the following five pillars: good governance and a capable state; human resource development and a knowledge-based economy; a private-sector-led economy; infrastructure development; productive and market-oriented agriculture.
But critical to our discussion is that the number one crosscutting factor identified within that document is gender equality. This posture is evident in the fact that of 80 seats in Parliament, women occupy 51, which is 64% of the seats. I believe that such representation by women and for women has made an obvious impact on the issue that we are discussing today, because women now have a strong and audible voice in this nation.
Tangible evidence of the belief that victimized women now have a voice is the fact that Rwanda has committed to construct the first gender-based violence care facility in east Africa at the Rwanda Military Hospital, under the management of the clinical psychology department. Treatment there will include DNA testing for the purpose of identifying the perpetrator and seeking justice for the victim.
Given Rwanda's stance on women who are and were victims of rape and sexual violence, women feel justified in coming forward with their testimonies and looking for help to recover. Public awareness campaigns have also made this topic more acceptable to discuss.
Though Rwanda is but a developing nation, she is earnestly trying to address the issue of gender-based violence. However, with only six psychiatrists, one or two psychiatric nurses or psychologists per district, and only one hospital with a department of clinical psychology, the resources are not enough to handle the psychiatric and psychological needs of the nation.
Furthermore, as my colleagues at the Rwanda Military Hospital frequently remind me, clinical psychology is a very new field in Rwanda. The interventions used to help victims are sometimes superficial, often treating the behaviour rather than the root cause. Hence, traumatized individuals live with constant fear, antisocial behaviours, promiscuity, aggression, and irritability.
Rwanda has welcomed outside help to train both professional and lay counsellors in alternative interventions, which is how I originally connected with the nation, but there is still more need.
My experience with survivors of rape and sexual violence, and that of others who work in the same field, reveals that the determinants of recovery for Rwandan victims of rape and sexual violence during the Rwanda crisis include the severity of the trauma suffered, which is often related to whether the victim was individually raped; gang-raped; raped with objects, such as sharpened sticks or gun barrels; held in sexual slavery; or sexually mutilated. The severity of the trauma is also related to whether the victim witnessed the torture and/or killings of close relatives prior to the rape.
Other determinants are the availability of social networks for the victims, which includes family, church, and immediate community; the personality of the victims, including resilience, tenacity, self-confidence, etc.; and the spirituality of the victims, as faith plays a huge role in Rwandan life. Knowledge of a divine meaning or a bigger purpose for their life, or knowledge of a divine presence, has an impact.
A woman who conceived a child through rape during the genocide is most likely orphaned and severely traumatized by watching her family die before her eyes. She is an outcast, a woman tarnished by the seed of genocidaires. As a Tutsi carrying a Hutu child, she was rejected by both groups. If her church was politically involved in supporting Hutu extremists, she lost that aspect of support, as well as faith in her denomination and/or God. She has been stripped of all support networks.
Women who do not find support and have lived 20 years with the memories, disease, and scars of rape and sexual violence still require intensive care. They suffer from mental illnesses ranging from depression to the utterly debilitating dissociative disorder. Others have become addicts as they tried to numb their pain with drugs and alcohol, while many have succumbed to the thought that they are valued only for one thing and have turned to prostitution.
In Rwandan culture, there is a reluctance to express one's true and deepest thoughts and feelings outside the family. Family is number one in Rwanda. The majority of genocide rape survivors lost their families, which leaves the question, whom do they turn to? Neighbours killed neighbours, and the global community turned its back on Rwanda during that crisis. Suspicion and distrust run thick and deep.
Recovery requires the development of trusting relationships, and this takes time and intentionality. Women have found healing with others who understand their pain, those who empathize and those who have suffered in the same manner. Facilitating such relationships and accompanying these women is hugely restorative. It is within this context that survivors frequently share that this is how and where they found family.
Experience indicates that much of the development of children of rape in Rwanda is determined by the acceptance by the mother and the attachment to her. If the mother can accept and bond effectively with the child, there is a greater likelihood the child will develop securely and become a responsible, contributing citizen. However, more often than not, the mother did not accept the child, and when abortion attempts failed, the mother either committed or attempted infanticide, deserted the child, or kept the child.
The kept child, so often resembling its father, the perpetrator of rape, was hated and suffered the wrath that the mother had for the rapist. Feeling unwanted and unloved, the surviving children of rape suffer from serious identity issues. Abandoned by their mothers and not knowing their fathers, they often turn to drugs and alcohol and exhibit rebellious behaviour.
Since 2010, the Rwandan government has responded by providing rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction, as well as vocational skills training, to young men aged 18 to 35. Some of these rehabilitated men are children of rape abandoned by their mothers, who were incapable of caring for them. Forced to live on the streets, they turned to substance abuse. The government has plans to open another such facility, for young women, in the coming year.
I work with some of these young men and women, children of rape, to provide transitional housing, medical care, further education, and entrepreneurial cooperative establishment, and to advocate for them when necessary. To be honest, these are only the basics that good-enough parenting would provide, and this is not lost on these young men and women. In their testimonies of transformation, they always share that they have found home and family. Children, no matter what age, need a secure attachment to a safe and reliable person.
Again, home and family make the difference in such a child's ability to recover from the brokenness of rejection.
In conclusion, I would like to say that early holistic and culturally contextualized interventions for sexual violence victims, preferably by nationals, and awareness campaigns that address the injustices of sexual violence both inside and outside the context of war, are obviously necessary to put an end to and recover from such injustices. But I can't stress enough that successful stories of recovery are found in those who have received long-term compassionate care. Beneficiaries of such attentive care are the first to testify to this. Through accompaniment by another with an empathetic ear, and finding community in those who understand, many have found healing, or at least enough resolution of trauma to move forward.
Finally, to paraphrase, a Canadian hero, the general of UNAMIR, and now a senator, Roméo Dallaire, in an address to a Calgary audience in January of this year: Rwanda is an experiment of healing; no other nation has shown such recovery from such a crisis.
Like the noted author and journalist, Jean Hatzfeld, I believe that we have much to learn from Rwandans about reconciliation and healing from war wounds, as well as prevention of sexual violence. I want to encourage you in your efforts to learn from Rwanda's experience.
Thank you.
