In March, Dr. Naasson Munyandamutsa
of Rwanda was selected to receive the 2013 Barbara Chester Award. The award will be
formally presented on the 12th of October on the Hopi Indian
reservation in northeastern Arizona.
Naasson Munyandamutsa is a
medical doctor with specializations in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. He has
worked as a clinician and lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the
University of Geneva in Switzerland. A frequent presenter at international
conferences on psychological trauma, Dr. Munyandamutsa addresses the
psychological consequences of extreme violence and the challenges of living
together in war torn societies. He also collaborated with the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the capacity building of
stakeholders by providing psychological treatment for victims and witnesses.
Currently he is a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of
Clinical Psychology at the National University of Rwanda, maintains a clinical
practice, and works for the promotion of dialogue as a mechanism for conflict
management in war-torn countries in his role as Deputy Director of the
Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace. Dr. Munyandamutsa also is a
member of the scientific support committee for Rwandan projects in the field of
health funded by the government of Belgium. In 2011 he received the Geneva Prize Foundation for Human Rights in
Psychiatry Award.
In 1994, the world awakened to genocidal mass slaughter that
took place in the East
African state of Rwanda.
Over the course of approximately 100 days, from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people
were killed, or as much as 20% of the country's total population, according to
a Human Rights
Watch estimate.
Although
not present in Rwanda in 1994, Dr. Munyandamutsa
lost all of his family except for one brother who was also out of the country
during the genocide. His birthplace home
was destroyed. He was motivated to
return to Rwanda to help with the country’s recovery from massive trauma. He knew he could help to train others as well
to respond to the traumatic reactions of genocide survivors.
Naasson
returned to Rwanda in late 1994 and for several years was the only psychiatrist
in the country. With financial
assistance from a Swiss humanitarian organization and later from UNICEF, in
1995, Dr. Munyandamutsa established the
National Trauma Recovery Center to promote healing from the massive traumatic
experiences of the genocide. He began to
train students of psychology and lay counselors to respond the needs of individuals
and communities. He also promoted
supervision being acutely aware of the impact of secondary trauma on those who
also endured primary trauma.
Additionally, he advocated and received a set of scholarships for
Rwandan physicians to be trained as psychiatrists at his Swiss alma mater.
In
1999, when UNICEF funding ended, Naasson worked with the Rwandan Ministry of
Health to assume a responsible role in maintaining psychosocial services. This collaboration resulted in the
development of the Psychosocial Consultation Services (Service de Consultation
Psychosociale) to provide outpatient counseling for genocide survivors.
In
addition, Dr. Munyandamutsa began teaching
clinical psychology, psychiatry, and psychopharmacology at the National
University of Rwanda to increase understanding of traumatic experiences. In some ways, he is the “father” of mental
health in post-genocide Rwanda. His
wife, Donatilla, who became educated in psychiatric nursing after the genocide
and has made her own contributions in promoting mental health in Rwanda, says,
“No one else can do what Naasson has done in Rwanda, he is a resource to
everyone.” He has been instrumental in
governmental policies on mental health, the development of programming for
education and direct services, and is a sensitive and skilled clinician.
Henriette,
who was 19 years old at the time of the genocide and has a horrific story of
fleeing and hiding for her life, says, “Dr. Naasson saved my life.” She explained that after the genocide ended,
she saw the massive loss of human lives and had haunting memories of being
stalked by genocideers. She became profoundly depressed, was hopeless, and
wanted to die. Henriette recounted that
was how many people felt afterward the genocide. She described how Dr. Munyandamutsa listened to her story with understanding and
kindness, affirming her suffering and gradually redirected her to what she had
to live for. She went on to receive
training as a trauma counselor and by helping others, she continued to recover
and regain a sense of hope and future for herself and for Rwanda.
One
Rwandan psychologist, Dr. Eugene Rutembesa, recalled that Naasson was always
teaching. He served as a role model for
others through his devotion to helping and positive attitude. Naasson once told Eugene when he asked how
Naasson continues to work so hard, “Serving people, it is life.”
Dr.
Eugene also reported that he learned from Naasson that healing goes beyond
psychological treatment, that the needs of the whole person must be addressed,
the psychological, the social, and the economic. Naasson believes that a good clinician must
always be thinking, “What is the next step?”
An
illustrative example of this involves Naasson’s work with IBUKA, an
organization that assists genocide survivors, with particular concern for
widows. His work with IBUKA resulted in
a program that recognizes and addresses the long-term consequences of trauma on
emotional well-being within the social context of a post-genocide society where
social and economic issues are essential to well-being. IBUKA has prided itself in developing income
generation projects for widows as a result of Naasson’s consultation and
support.
Dr. Munyandamutsa is also the Deputy Director of the
Institute for Research and Dialogue for Peace.
He works extensively within the country and with the Rwandan
diaspora. He uses community meetings and
radio discussions to address issues of mistrust that persist in the
post-genocide society. He believes that
in order to heal from the genocide, silence needs to be broken and words needs
to be used to speak of the experiences endured by all Rwandans. The radio is a powerful tool that reaches all
people in the country, even the illiterate, to explain symptoms and to
encourage.
An
example of radio as a powerful tool that reached far was a broadcast that
discussed suicidal feelings. A young
male survivor who lost all family members in the genocide was alone and
depressed. He was hopeless and
considering ending his life. He heard
Naasson speak on the radio about suicide and it sparked an interest in meeting
him. This young man traveled by foot for
three days. When he reached Kigali, the
police questioned him at a checkpoint and he told them that he was wanted to
see Naasson. They escorted him to the
psychiatric hospital.
When
he met Naasson, he told him, I have questions for you: How do you manage your
life when you listen to people like me who have lost everything and are
depressed, how do you not go crazy? What
do you do with people like me who want to put an end to their life? If I die, will I continue to suffer?
Naasson
responded to the young man, “If I have the opportunity to meet somebody like
you, we work together, and you improve, it gives me much hope for the
future.” “It is a killer’s business to
end life, we need to focus on living.”
And thirdly, “No one knows what is after death. We just have to accept that we do not know.”
The
young man went on to work with Naasson for a period and was able to move beyond
his depression and find a hope for the future.
Naasson
recognizes the complexity and responsibility of memory, and the need not to get
mired in divisive memories. He believes
it is impossible to forget, but it is also risky to wallow in the past, saying
we have to look to the future – we need to find a way to meet this
challenge. He recognizes the importance
of justice and the difficulty to achieve justice. He believes in and promotes the use of
dialogue in his therapeutic relationships and in his advocacy within the
country and with the diaspora.
