Children born of genocidal sexual violence: The impact of counselling - A case study from Rwanda

Résumé

Our presentation will focus on the impact that counselling has on Rwandan mothers and their daughters/sons where the mothers were raped during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the children were born as a result of these rapes. Questions that will be addressed include: (1) what did the genocidal sexual violence entail?; (2) what were the consequences for the women and children born from rape (e.g. stigma, isolation, bullying, trauma, poverty)?; (3) how to meaningfully counsel these women and their children for them to have a good relationship together and with others and to feel positive about themselves as individuals?; and (4) how to make sure they continue with their lives in a positive manner (e.g. socio-economically, psychologically, legally, physically, spiritually)? The presentation is based on the thousands of individual and group counselling sessions that counsellor Mama Lambert had with these women and children over the past 25 years. Mama lambert’s life story and work as well as the lives of these mothers and children are furthermore written down in the books ‘For Those Who Do Not Believe In Miracles (2015)’, ‘The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence (2009)’, and ‘And I Live On: The Resilience of Rwandan Genocide Survivors of Sexual Violence (2019)’, all authored by the proposed speakers for this congress.

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