Contact: Sheryl HayesPH: 434-924-6562
FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: sheryl@virginia.edu
Contact: Sheryl Hayes
PH: 434-924-6562
FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: sheryl@virginia.edu
http://www.virginiafoundation.org/research/violence/index.html
For Immediate Release
July 18, 2007
“Before 1993 Judith led a normal life…” Thus begins the story of a woman in Burundi whose life has been ravaged by a violence most of us cannot fathom. Having endured the murder of her husband and three children, death threats on her other children, rape resulting in pregnancy, and life in a Displaced Persons Camp, Judith was severely traumatized and practically unable to function. Unfortunately, Judith’s experience is not unusual in a country wracked with extensive ethnic violence since the early 1960’s.
Once condemned to suffer in silence or retaliate in fury, Judith and thousands like her in this smallest of African countries have found a means to healing through the work of Trauma Healing And Reconciliation Services (THARS). Founded in 1999 by Burundi Quaker David Niyonzima, the goal of this organization is to heal, reunite and strengthen individuals and communities in Burundi and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. THARS now functions as an independent, non-political, interfaith organization recognized by the Burundi Government.
Niyonzima, whose parents were among the first Burundi Quakers, knows such violence only too well. In 1993, he narrowly escaped death when soldiers burst into the compound and began shooting as David was teaching at the Kwibuka Training Center. Even in a country where such occurrences were not unknown, nothing in David’s Quaker upbringing had prepared him for the sight of eight of his students lying dead in his school.
Following the attack, David sought refuge from the killers by hiding in the attic of his father’s house. It was there that he heard the call that would shape his life: “What are you doing here?” Inaudible perhaps, but unmistakable nonetheless, it came again: “What are you doing here?” David emerged from the darkness and relative security of the attic to the mission that has driven his life since: to bring peace and reconciliation to his violence-torn country.
Niyonzima says of THARS: “We help people of all walks of life to build a culture of peace and harmony. By promoting mutual respect and listening, THARS enables people to understand each other, have compassion for one another and care for one another. We foster reconciliation and seek to heal traumatic and psychological wounds so that justice prevails and people find peaceful alternatives for resolving their differences.”
THARS facilitates and coordinates workshops on trauma healing, and establishes local sites called “Listening Rooms” where families, groups and individuals who need trauma assistance can receive treatment from counselors who are trained in trauma healing and reconciliation. THARS also provides activities, community forums, exchanges and skill training that contribute to reconciliation. THARS has created a micro-loan program to encourage self-reliance, established safe houses for victims of torture and sexual violence, and conducts workshops for community leaders on Human Rights and Democracy. In addition to the hands-on “grass-roots” work with survivors, THARS works to educate the public and international community about issues of trauma and to encourage action on these issues.
Niyonzima has recently been in residence at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), a statewide organization created in 1974 to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth. For over ten years, the VFH Institute on Violence and Survival, under the direction of Dr. Roberta Culbertson, has studied the long term effects of violent systems in communities caught up in ethnic cleansing, in wars of political repression and dictatorship, and in the small social structures of home and family, in which violence can come to shape and misshape love and protection. Recently, Culbertson’s work has focused on an inter-disciplinary study of the impact of mass crime on individuals and society at large. It is here that Niyonzima’s and Culbertson’s work intersect, and where they are learning from each other during this residency.
Both the Institute for Violence and Survival and THARS encourage and participate in research in this field, and seek to build capacity for dealing with trauma by means of seminars, conferences and literature. Both stress the use of music, theatre, dance and sports to promote and nurture the healing process. Both organizations publish material on violence, trauma and healing. In fact, one tangible accomplishment of the residency was the translation into the Kirundi language of several booklets and pamphlets written by Culbertson and distributed widely throughout Virginia prior to and following the September 11th attacks in the US.
Culbertson says, “THARS’ work has much to teach us in this country about how to organize and conduct trauma healing at the community level. THARS programs are extremely low cost, and make everyone responsible for healing, rather than only the victims. Our hope is that over the next several years, David Niyonzima and others in the VFH Violence and Survival program from Virginia, Guatemala, Colombia, France and elsewhere can develop healing approaches based on stories, poetry, fiction, traditional healing methods and the arts that can work across cultures. The true work of the humanities is to remind us all that being human can be painful and sad, but our humanity allows us to help one another keep going, and to continue to live with hope.”
Through the efforts of THARS, Judith and many other Burundians suffering from acute traumatic stress disorder have gained a renewed sense of safety, peace, and hope for the future. Within the safe environment of a THARS Listening Room, Judith was able to share her experience and her pain, and to begin to the journey toward healing.
“Today I feel as a human being again, a person and not an animal!...(At THARS) I met a lady whose two hands were cut off by her own husband. And when I talked to her, I felt as if my troubles were smaller as compared to what Francine had gone through. It was as if my own healing got completed by the healing of one whose situation was worse than mine. I thank THARS for all they did for us.”
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