Reconciliation of Refugees Returning from Exile.

I. Context This month of November 2020 were characterized by four important events such as:

(i) the opening of the Bujumbura International airport on November 8, 2020,

(ii) the continuation massive coming back of refugees,

(iii) two sorties of the President of Republic out of the country going to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon,

(iv) a visit of the UN general secretary representative in the Great Lakes region and other officials for public and diplomatic relations renewal.

Activities performed.

1. Four HROC Basic workshops were conducted during this November, one in Saint Stephan’s technical school, two within Taba and Cibitoke secondary schools and one with university students attending the Psychology and education sciences department,

2. Monitoring for seven university students doing their two month’s internship,

1. HROC Basic workshops IPB is responding to the call made by those who attended the HROC basic working now at those schools who wish to establish peace clubs in those schools. At the university’s psychology and education sciences department, it’s now becoming a wish of all students to follow the HROC program as a way of learning practical experiences in listening to wounded people and others practices leading to trauma healing.

2. Monitoring for seven university students doing their two month’s internship The impact of the HROC program in Burundi is now clear. More than twenty students in process of finishing their bachelor degree in psychology studies advocated for an internship. Only seven among them were accepted following their participation in IPB and HROC activities. This internship will last for two months. This becomes one of the ways of responding to the Burundi government requirements for local organization ‘visible contribution to the targeted group. See below are statistic tables illustrating the kind of activities performed, where and when, number and gender of the participants? 

Description of activities performed in November The HROC Basic workshop The Burundi crisis of 2015, affected negatively youth from the opposition as well as that of the ruling party and its allies. They were both perpetrators and victims of violence. Majority of them was those attending the secondary school, mainly in Bujumbura the economic capital city. During the recent 2020 election, the main political party “CNL of Agathon Rwasa” expected to win that election in vain. Its partisans / followers resisted to accept their failing. Youth belonging to it needs psychological assistance. IPB facilitators are applying trauma healing basic by introduce participants to the concept of trauma, build a sense of trust and community, and facilitate initial expression of grief and mourning. They also introduce stages of a healing process and concrete strategies for dealing with intense anger. They add to this, concrete knowledge and skill building for managing the after-effects of trauma III.

Key stories of success

DJUMAPILI: One day, I went with my friend at Tanganyika Lake for swimming. We met there others students. After swimming around thirty minutes, we lay ourselves on the beach sand. He decided to continue swimming alone. We waited for his returning back in vain. Looking at the other side of the lake, we saw people rescuing someone from drowning. Running toward them, my friend passed away. Since then, I don’t have power to go back there. If I tried to go there the image of my friend comes by itself in my mind and I start to cry. Whenever I saw his photo, I cry to. Since then, I stopped to visit there. After learning about trauma and the way of recovering from it, I ‘m going to mourn for him and remembering to him whenever the date of his death arrived. I will also look for someone I do have confidence to listen to whenever those signs should come back in my mind.

Channelle: I belong to a family of three children: one boy and two girls. Our brother died. Following his death my father started to show a strange behavior toward us, saying that girls are not children according to him. Each time, he never failed to repeat that his only child he had died. Since then I understood that I was loved by my father as other children living the neighborhood were toward their fathers. My paternal uncle came to live to our home and took care of myself and my daughter. We felt loved as we remained with our uncle. One day my uncle went to his daily job. We waited for him at dinner and super in vain. My family searched for him in vain to. The following day the family made an announcement about his lost His dead corpse was found hanged on a tree two days after. Until today the family still searching why this suicide. I got wounded by his death and developed trauma symptoms starting by isolation, flashback of what we discussed when he was still alive. I’m glad that I succeed to share this. I will continue to assist myself. I wish IPB should make a follow up of this training and organize other workshops leading us to complete healing.

Aristide: I was wounded by a school failure in the second year of secondary education. My teacher of mathematics and technology was in conflict with my mother. She was selling beverages and sometimes, she could ask me to help her, when the teacher was against. It was impossible to disobey my mother the demand even though the teacher wished to see myself reviewing my notes that time. This worsened the situation when this teacher saw that I continued to give a hand to my mother daily work. I did my best to review my notes and I was getting a good marks in all courses. The trigger of my school failure was due to the fact I made a joke during the national flag hoist. The teacher accused me of conducting a coup d’état. He openly then told me that I will not succeed despite the good marks I was getting in his courses. Due to the accusation, I was chased from school for two weeks and it was during the exam period. Despite this dismissal, I succeeded all the courses at the end of the year. But I was listed among the unruly students of the year. Thus, I could not be accepted for the next class and I was very much wounded. I went back in my neighborhood with a bad reputation. This remained in my mind and I had a plan to revenge myself one day. After learning about the consequences of trauma, I changed my mind. I forgive the teacher and I’m going to assist other wounded people stating by my family members.