Student Wins Grant to Promote Mental Health in Rwanda

For her 100th birthday in 2007, Kathryn Wasserman Davis provided funding for the first 100 Projects for Peace, giving students at different colleges—including Lewis & Clark—$10,000 grants to carry out their projects focused on creating peace. Lewis & Clark students have been awarded grants every year since the program’s inception. Since 2009, Lewis & Clark’s president has generously added $2,500 to Projects for Peace grants awarded to L&C students, expanding both the scale and impact of their projects.

Rene Amani, L&C's 2022-23 Dallaire Scholar.
Credit: Nina JohnsonLewis & Clark’s most recent Projects for Peace winner is Rene Amani, the college’s 2022-23 Dallaire Scholar. Winners of the Dallaire Scholarship come to L&C as visiting students for one year of study in the Academic English Studies program, then return to Rwanda, usually to work in the human rights field.

The goal of Amani’s Project for Peace was to bring support to families most affected by the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In summer 2023, he brought Kuganira Mental Health workshops to families in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, where they worked on a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (developed by the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development) to help connect and empower families who had experienced trauma.

When everyone in the community feels safe and is capable of caring for their bodily and mental needs, there is peace.

-Rene Amani

Going forward, Amani plans to invite governmental organizations and the commercial sector to join in his mission to end generational trauma. He wants to continue holding workshops for parents, caregivers, and Rwandan kids in order for them to discover how to maintain their mental health and family relationships as early as possible.

2023 Projects for Peace

Workshop leaders help young people understand their parents' pasts and how to assist them in recovering from their traumatic upbringings.

Show image: Participants sitting in a circle, talking.

Parents and their kids participate in a panel discussion to explore safety measures that can be taken at home.

Show image: Participants sitting in front of six panelists.

Participants engage in a workshop activity that shows the brain can recover from trauma just as polluted water can become clean.

Show image: Participants leaning toward each other and talking.

Workshop participants view images of Rwandan genocide victims, with the goal to learn and remember.

Show image: Participants looking at a wall hung with tons of images of genocide victims.

We caught up with Amani to learn more about how he brought mental health workshops to families in Kigali. 

What are the origins of this project?

One Help One Direction Ihumure is an NGO that I developed in 2016 to address the physical needs of young children who used to live on the streets of Kigali, Rwanda. After working with kids for three years, the organization discovered that family is the basis of a child, and if we want to see a happy kid, we should work to make home a safe place.

Now the organization has expanded its mission to include mental health and family relation needs through a Trust-Based Relational Intervention workshop titled Kuganira Mental Health. The workshop focuses on generational-transmitted trauma.

Kuganira Mental Health is based on the principles of “connect, correct, and empower.” The main objective of this project is to teach parents how to make home a peaceful place for all members, especially the children who are being raised by family members who were traumatized directly by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Could you describe the workshops?

The workshops were organized into three major stages: one week for facilitator training, two weeks for family workshops, and the last week for home visits and evaluation. All were held in person and took place from August 14 to September 1, 2023.

We gathered 15 families from traumatic backgrounds. Each household was represented by one parent and one child, with a total of 30 participants. Our workshops centered on trauma-informed activities in which we used the strategies and principles of the Trust-Based Relational Intervention to train participants. Every action gave us an opportunity to show how the intervention’s three principles (connect, empower, and correct) can be used to rebuild trust in the home.

Did you collaborate with community partners?

We collaborated with two local organizations. The first was Aegis Trust, which assisted us in hosting our workshops at their location—the Kigali Community Peace Center, a significant location for remembering and learning about Rwandan history. And the second was Gisimba Memorial Center, which assisted us in creating the Kuganira Mental Health booklet that we have been using during the workshops.

Why did you choose to hold the workshops in Kigali?

We decided to begin in Kigali, which is the capital city, because it has easy access to resources. In the future, we’ll begin holding workshops in various regions throughout Rwanda.

How did people respond to the workshops?

Participants were delighted to attend the workshops, and we encouraged individuals to participate and be as open as possible.

What parts do you think were most successful?

People opened up to us and revealed the most difficult parts of their stories, which led them to realize that they had been going through trauma.

What’s next for the project?

The next step is to share the results with government or private institutions interested in sustaining and creating excellent mental health in the community. We want to inform them that if they invest in such workshops, we will prevent many family troubles and repair trust within a family.

We have already begun planning a workshop for next year. To raise money for it, we will be presenting our proposal to our current partners, like the Aegis Trust, the Gisimba Memorial Center, and other organizations. In order to illustrate the problem in the family and how our workshop may assist in addressing it by restoring family trust, we will present the results to Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.

How does your project promote peace?

When everyone in the community feels safe and is capable of caring for their bodily and mental needs, there is peace.

Projects for Peace Dallaire Scholarship