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Rwanda: Gift for Life
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Dec 21, 2005 (051221)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
In Rwanda, as around the African continent, people's lives depend
not only on governments and on global policymaking, but most
directly on their own efforts and those of countless small
organizations that make it their business to provide help for
survival and finding new ways to rebuild lives and communities. One
such effort, focusing on genocide survivors in Rwanda living not
only with the aftermath of rape but also with HIV/AIDS, is Gift for
Life, a campaign initiated by African Rights in Rwanda.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a short summary of this ongoing
program, and excerpts from a 2004 report by African Rights based on
interviews with over 200 rape survivors. The report, published on
the web site of the UK-based SURF Survivors Fund
(http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk) also contains background on Rwandan
women's organizations working on this and related issues. Another
Bulletin sent out today contains excerpts from a report from the
Alternatives to Violence Project, which is working with judges in
Rwanda involved in the local Gacaca process of genocide cases.
For earlier AfricaFocus Bulletins and links on Rwanda, see
http://www.africafocus.org/country/rwanda.php
Note: Today's two issues of AfricaFocus Bulletin are the last for
2005. My best wishes to readers for the holidays and for our
common work and concerns for Africa as we enter the new year.
Publication will resume in the second half of January.
Thanks to all of you who have supported AfricaFocus Bulletin this
year. Your support will continue to be needed in 2006. To make a
voluntary subscription payment, visit http://www.africafocus.org/support.php
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gift for Life:
A People-to-People Campaign for Rwanda
Empowering women, transforming lives: Providing care and support
to Rwandan women, who, raped during the 1994 genocide, are now
living with AIDS.
In 1994, during the genocide in Rwanda, close to one million
people were killed and thousands of women and girls sexually
assaulted. Many of these women who were raped were also infected
with HIV. Today, more than a decade later, they continue to live
with the trauma of the past, struggling to care for their
families while living with, and slowly dying of AIDS.
The Gift for Life Program
Gift for Life is a program of African Rights in Rwanda which
supports women who were raped and are now living with AIDS. In
2003, African Rights collected over 200 testimonies of rape
survivors, many of whom were infected with HIV as a result. Their
stories, published in Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits, speak
compellingly of their horrific experiences and the continued
impact of the genocide on their lives. A number of those
interviewed have already died because they lacked access to
information, drugs or basic resources, such as food. Poverty and
ill health are making survival next to impossible for these women
they are living out a death sentence that eleven years ago broke
their spirits and is now breaking their bodies.
Since the Gift for Life program was launched, a crucial step has
been taken in Rwanda: Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are now being
provided by the Ministry of Health, free of charge. The focus of
the Gift for Life program is to enable the women who need drugs
to access them and to sustain their treatment over the longer
term. Gift for Life acknowledges that in an environment where
gender inequalities, poverty and stigma are challenges women
living with AIDS face every day, it is extremely difficult to
adhere to the strict regimen associated with ARV treatment, even
when the drugs are free.
This regimen is consistently hampered by physical and emotional
realities which, when combined, make the free access to drugs
appear to be the easy step. These realities include ill health,
post-traumatic stress syndrome, substandard housing, social
isolation and stigma, lack of food and adequate nutrition, lack
of clean water, the absence of transportation to the clinic or
hospital; they include no means of livelihood to put food on the
table, to keep themselves and their families clothed, and keep
their children in school. In addition, many women are also caring
for orphans of the genocide or for sick relatives and friends, an
added burden to already untenable living situations.
Gift for Life will not only provide funds for medical care, but
supplementary support, both practical and emotional, to ensure
that women living with HIV/AIDS can realistically sustain the
treatment regimen required to stay healthy and take charge of
their lives.
Gift for Life is an international campaign, bringing together a
network of concerned individuals, some offering financial
contributions, others donating their time and skills. Most of us
are based in Africa, particularly Rwanda, the US or the UK, but
our aim is to make giving truly global. Among the contributors so
far are people from all walks of life and backgrounds, often with
a personal experience of Rwanda, but always with a special
concern for the needs of survivors of rape and genocide. They
include Rwandese people living in the diaspora, journalists,
lawyers, students, academics, women's rights activists, medical
professionals, entertainers and filmmakers, business
professionals, as well as many other concerned people. Our
community of support is new but growing.
How does the program work?
Gift for Life is based on a 'people-to-people' approach; a
campaign that starts small, but thinks big; a campaign that
connects individual actions to a wider community of support that
in turn connects directly to improving the lives of Rwandan women
living with AIDS. Assessments undertaken by African Rights
estimate that the cost of supporting one woman per year is
between $1500 to $2000 (the larger amount takes into account the
needs of children who are HIV positive). This covers treatment,
food/nutrition, school fees, help with housing, and other
necessities that are specific to the individual woman (such as
trauma counseling, paying a helper or "buddy" to ensure regular
intake of ARVs, boosting income-generating opportunities).
Additional funds will be raised for training community health
workers to support the women and for the transport and
administrative costs of African Rights staff that will maintain
and monitor the program.
The program began with a small group of women in the
towns/provinces of Butare and Cyangugu. With a relatively small
effort, their lives are already being transformed. The program
continues to grow in a contained and steady manner, increasing
the number of women supported in step with the funds being
raised. African Rights is working at the community level in
partnership with medical practitioners, hospitals administering
ARV treatment, several local NGOs, and faith-based organizations,
to ensure that the funds raised for each woman will meet their
specific needs.
This is where you come in. How can you help?
Gift for Life urges you to support the campaign and raise either
$1500 or $2000 per year for four years to support one rape
survivor. Contribute in any way you can as individuals, as
members of a group, through community fundraisers or
get-togethers with friends. Ask ten friends to form a Gift for
Life team, or build upon existing groups book clubs,
faith-based groups, women's groups, sororities, bridge clubs,
investment groups, etc. Watch a film on Rwanda, hold a dinner, a
yard sale, a bake sale; encourage your local bookstore to display
of Rwandan books with a sign-up list; send out a mailing to
family and friends. Be as creative as you can.
Funds raised will be sent regularly to African Rights in Kigali,
Rwanda, the main administrator of the program in Rwanda. Gift for
Life is requesting groups/teams/individuals to consider
committing to the program for five years.
Gift for Life's fiscal sponsor is the United Methodist Committee
on Relief, a program of the General Board of Global Ministries of
the United Methodist Church, New York.
Tax deductible contributions in the US should be sent to: Gift
for Life, P.O. Box 840, Montclair, NJ 07042
email: [email protected]
Checks should be made out as follows: On the "Payable to" line:
UMCOR Advance #982345 On the memo line: HIV/AIDS Program - Gift
For Life
[The SURF Survivors Fund in the UK (http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk)
also provides support for these programs in Rwanda.]
Coordinators and Partners of the Gift for Life Program
Gift for Life is a program of African Rights, a human rights
organization that advocates on behalf of those suffering
injustice and oppression. It focuses on countries scarred by
violence, including Rwanda and Somalia, to highlight abuses and
bring the voices of victims, as well as other concerned parties,
to the centre of debates on how to secure rights
(www.africanrights.org)
The coordinators are:
In Rwanda: Rakiya Omaar, Director, African Rights, has carried
out extensive research and written widely on genocide, conflict,
human rights and the search for peace, seeking in particular to
provide a platform for the perspective of ordinary Africans on
the issues that touch their lives. A Somali and a lawyer by
training, she divides her time between Rwanda and Somaliland. In
addition, African Rights, Rwanda is providing support through its
staff in Kigali.
In the US: Stephanie Urdang, is a journalist and consultant on
gender and HIV/AIDS and long time activist on human rights and
gender equality issues. She was until recently the Advisor,
Gender and HIV/AIDS for the UN Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM). She is a South African who lives in Montclair, New
Jersey, USA.
Email contact: [email protected]
Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits Living with Genocide, Rape and
HIV/AIDS
April 2004
African Rights Working for Justice
PO Box 3836, Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: 00 250 501007 Fax: 00 250 501008
http://www.africanrights.org
E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]
[Introduction and brief excerpts only. The full 101-page report,
with extensive quotes from interviews (names changed) is
available as a pdf file at
http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/pdf/broken_bodies.pdf]
Introduction
For some victims, there is no life after rape; they lose their
health and happiness. Women raped during the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda lead a uniquely troubled existence and many feel their
survival is its own form of torture. They are desperately
impoverished, commonly infected with HIV/AIDS and are responsible
for several children. They see their lives as "finished" or
"another form of martyrdom"; one woman described herself as "a
living dead person."
The suffering of "rape survivors" interviewed for this report is
extreme; many see no prospect of recovery. No one can revive the
millions killed in genocide and conflict over the past decade in
this region, but it is surely not beyond the capacity of
governments, international agencies and non- governmental
organizations (NGOs), working together, to restore quality of
life to these women. Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits identifies their
problems and some possibilities for addressing them.
Researched in the course of a year across 11 of Rwanda's 12
provinces, this study is intended as a contribution to the many
ongoing efforts to improve responses to rape, HIV/AIDS and other
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the Great Lakes region
and more widely in Africa. It addresses an issue confronting all
post-conflict and conflict-ridden societies, particularly on this
turbulent continent the rapid spread of infections in the context
of sexual violence. In accounts of rape during the 1994 genocide
and their experiences since, 185 Rwandese and 16 Burundian
citizens, two of them male, reach out beyond their own dire
circumstances as informants and advocates on a critical wider
problem. They speak of extreme cruelty compounded by missed
medical opportunities and humanitarian failures.
HIV/AIDS is steadily draining the life out of millions of African
men, women and children. Awareness of the extent of the pandemic
is now high and, increasingly, positive action is being taken
across the continent to address the needs of people living with
HIV/AIDS and to prevent infections. African governments cannot
address this crisis alone and need the full backing of the
international community.1 This report provides yet more evidence
to back the campaign to ensure supplies of cheap anti-retroviral
drugs in Africa. Only a handful of the women interviewed had
taken anti-retrovirals and none had done so consistently.
Maintaining the status quo, where the majority of those infected
with HIV/AIDS cannot access effective treatment for the
condition, constitutes a daily human rights violation.
Recent estimates suggest that some 500,000 people in Rwanda are
infected with HIV/AIDS; these statistics may not be totally
reliable. But what is beyond doubt is that the disease represents
a national disaster, now and for the future. The Government of
Rwanda has made apparent its awareness and concern, but as in
most African nations struggling to meet this unprecedented
challenge provision for prevention of HIV/AIDS and the care,
treatment and support of sufferers remains inadequate. All People
Living with HIV/AIDS (PWLAs) urgently need appropriate and
consistent information, treatment and care.3 Genocide rape
victims are a minority within this group although exactly how
many there are remains to be established but this report
emphasises that they have particular requirements and cannot
simply be integrated within wider programmes aimed at PWLAs.
This is not the first report concerned with rape in this region
and sadly it will not be the last. Rape is a standard weapon of
war and tyranny, perpetrated with impunity across Africa, from
Algeria to Zimbabwe. The reluctance of some victims and
communities to speak out about this crime is understandable but
is frequently a barrier to action. In Rwanda, genocide survivors
who were raped are reluctant to come forward, but many have been
prepared to tell their stories and to testify against their
persecutors partly it seems because they have nothing left to
lose. In a brief research trip to Burundi, African Rights
interviewed 16 witnesses. Their accounts emphasize that conflict
and instability continue to fuel the incidence of rape in the
Great Lakes region and the prospects for all survivors remain
grim.
Rather than the systematic programme of rape implemented in 1994
in Rwanda, women in Burundi fall victim to attack in various
contexts. Their experiences illustrate the vulnerability of women
of all ages in conflict-ridden societies. Their persecutors range
from soldiers and militia to neighbours and thugs. In many
respects their everyday predicament resembles that of victims in
Rwanda. These women are usually profoundly isolated, have already
experienced social rejection or have lost their extended families
to conflict or genocide. But the unique struggles of rape victims
in Rwanda are also emphasized in contrast. Rwandese women were
plunged into an instant, overwhelming and multi- dimensional
crisis in 1994, and the rape was just one element of this.
Poverty is a major constraint upon women's ability to reclaim
their lives after rape. Their collective predicament is to be
drowning in a series of crises, none of them completely soluble.
But unless they can find some economic security they will remain
utterly dependant upon State or charitable interventions in every
aspect of their lives. Not only does this destroy their
confidence and self-esteem on a daily basis, it is profoundly
insecure. As is evident from women's testimonies, direct
financial assistance is at best intermittent and seeking it
requires energy, awareness and even money for transport that the
women lack. In this context, women are condemned to limp from one
handout to the next, and sometimes have nothing to eat.
The only heartening evidence to emerge concerns how women draw
support from each other, through women's groups working
particularly with rape victims. In this study, women give
feedback on some existing initiatives providing informal
evaluations of their efficacy. On this sensitive issue, women
need advice and assistance from those they can most easily
identify with and trust.
We hope and believe the honesty and strength of the 199 women and
two men who participated in this project will promote the
establishment of appropriate and effective programmes,
particularly in conflict and post-conflict situations in Africa.
Their accounts provide insights into a range of relevant problems
in the areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, the treatment
of other sexually transmitted diseases, trauma, and social
issues. Women offer a diversity of private perspectives which
merit consideration in attempts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS
and other STDs and to rehabilitate rape victims. In particular,
the findings are of direct relevance in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) where, with a negotiated peace settlement and
the appointment of a new government, the opportunities to provide
assistance to rape survivors are widening.
Although most interviewees did not request anonymity, we have
concealed all their identities to protect what remains of their
privacy. They participated in this project willingly, but
invariably with anguish, reliving their ordeals of sexual torture
and rape and explaining in detail the painful emotional and
physical consequences. Not all had contracted the HIV virus; some
tested negative and even more were uncertain of their status,
although all provided useful information. 83 were, however,
infected and almost all were ill at the time of the interview,
some critically. Through the personal accounts given in this
report we are now intimate party to their sense of despair and
degradation. They have provided information to help stimulate and
define good practice in the care of rape victims and the
treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, but many of these women
will not live to see the systemic improvements necessary to make
their lives tolerable.
It is a matter of the deepest regret to all at African Rights
that some of the women we spoke to have already died since the
documentation began. They have left us their testimonies these
are precious records and they will not be forgotten.
Nevertheless, their deaths in pitiful circumstances mark an
appalling failure, in which we now feel implicated. It would now
be unconscionable if the remaining women do not experience any
relief as a result of their courageous participation in this
project.
The Primary Concern: The Future of Children
Overwhelmingly, the women we spoke to were single mothers; many
were also caring for orphans. They all fear for their children's
lives and those who are very ill or have tested HIV-positive
worry intensely. Commonly, they believe that if they had a home
to leave to their children they would be more secure, but most
were in temporary, rented or shared accommodation. They all felt
the future for their children was grim and not without reason.
Terminally ill women need to be given help to plan for their
children's life when they are gone. In Rwanda and Burundi there
are already so many orphans, left by the genocide, conflict and
upheaval the nations have known. But programmes to care for AIDS
orphans must now become a priority. Beyond the development of
programmes to care for AIDS orphans, women, and indeed their
children, require assistance, information and reassurance in this
area. Organizations like Avega, or community leaders that women
know and trust, given the resources, could strengthen their
capacity to counsel women and help them make practical
arrangements. If women believe their children will survive them
and will be provided with care and opportunities, they are much
more likely to come to terms with their illness, and to be able
to cope on a daily basis.
The prospect of death is unbearable to women when they think
about the life awaiting their children.
...
"Who" asked Gr�ce in Butare," is going to bring up my children
when there are no surviving members of the family?" Gr�ce's story
is among the most heartbreaking we have ever recorded. Now aged
40, she has a family of four children to look after, and she has
been their sole carer since her husband was murdered in 1994. She
is infected with HIV/AIDS which she feels certain was a result of
the rapes she endured. Even more devastating for Gr�ce was that
her eldest daughter was raped at the age of only six, and she too
is HIV positive. She was pregnant with the youngest at the time
of the rape and has not had him tested, but she said the other
two children are fine.
"Once I'd found out my results, I started to think about the
problems my children will have. The situation became worse when I
learnt that my eldest daughter was condemned to the same fate. My
daughter has been braver than me, but you can see that she
worries about the future of the little ones. She wonders how
they're going to live without their mother and their elder
sister. She asked me not to tell anybody that we're HIV positive.
When I'm out and about, I see everybody looking at me and I've
convinced myself that they all know that I contracted the AIDS
virus. "
Before 1994, the family was relatively secure economically
Gr�ce's husband was a teacher. They have moved back into their
home which, though looted and damaged, was not completely
demolished and Gr�ce has done her best to repair it. What she
wants, above everything else, "is to have my life back."
Knowing that this is impossible makes it futile, in her view, to
have aspirations. "My wishes cannot be realized unless I retrieve
my life. Otherwise, there's nothing else I want."
She prefers not to go on living, but her sense of responsibility
to her children gives her a purpose to continue the battle for
their sake. "I need to live a bit longer so that I can bring up
my children who aren't ill."
...
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with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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