Like a balloon on the verge of bursting…
Marie-Jeanne Ingabire is 25 years old. She makes movies and is also the vice-president for about one hundred first-aid volunteers of the Rwandan Red Cross. 13 April 2011 is the day of the closing ceremony of the Genocide Commemoration week. On Mount Rebero, in Kigali, hundreds of Rwandans come together to gather their thoughts, to listen to witness accounts, lest one forget…
The volunteers are there to help anyone for whom the strong emotions set loose by the event may rekindle the trauma. For the third year in a row these volunteers have been specifically trained by the National Mental Health Programme, which is supported by Belgium, to help these people as well as possible on-site and to be able to spot who needs to be transferred to specialized institutions.
For Marie-Jeanne, the main point is to listen and to make these people feel that they are not left alone. She has always looked for ways to help others. The training has enabled her to better grasp the various degrees of seriousness of trauma and the most appropriate method to deal with them. When a person is taken out of the crowd and brought to the Red Cross tents, the volunteers must be able to assess the symptoms of trauma (acute anxiety, state of restlessness, sideration, stupor, confusion, self-mutilation or even suicidal behaviour…) in order to respond to them as effectively as possible.
Considering last year’s numbers, this psychological care becomes all the more significant. Indeed, from 7 to 13 April 2010, just for the city of Kigali, 382 people were helped on the commemoration site (80% women among them) and 25% of them had to be transferred to specialized health institutions. District hospitals throughout the Provinces of the country treated 2,502 people with identical symptoms.
After seventeen years the after-effects still linger. Usually, people do not know what they suffer from, they are not aware of their trauma, which may sometimes lead to deviant behaviour. Often such commemorations bring trauma back. ”It is like a balloon that is filled with too much air and is on the verge of bursting.” With this comparison Marie-Jeanne illustrates the importance of taking care of people psychologically and she highlights the advantage of these people “bursting” when they are not on their own, so they can vent everything they have accumulated and finally be treated during such events.
After spending a morning bringing human warmth and offering solace, she can say, ”I am proud to help and to see the person recover.” She would also like to pursue her mental health training in order to know what happens in the brain in case of trauma, because ”one cannot treat a body correctly unless one knows how it functions.” She also wants to make a documentary about mental health in Rwanda, which should be ”like a mirror for the people” so they can become aware of their symptoms and be informed that if they show signs of trauma, there are institutions that can help them.
