• Country Overview
• Projects
• Current Activities

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

Rwanda faces many challenges as it seeks to rebuild from the devastating war and genocide that plagued the country in the early 1990s. It must re-build its economy, contend with traditional health issues such as malaria while combating the modern epidemic of AIDS, and find a way to bring about national reconciliation following years of fighting.

In an effort to heal the nation, try the more than 100,000 prisoners awaiting trial in prison, and re-integrate those who have served their sentences back into society, the government has established the Gacaca jurisdictions. The Gacacas have been adapted from a traditional form of justice, where cases are heard before an elected judge, with testimony from the community. The success of the Gacacas will be determined by the level of participation of the Rwandan people.

On the health front, Rwanda is faced with rapidly increasing HIV rates exacerbated by the migration of the general population and the military during and following the war, and the disproportionate ratio of women to men that resulted from the killing and jailing of men. In 1998, it was estimated that 13% of the Rwandan adult population was HIV infected. Among young adults the prevalence is as high as 25%. In 1997, the government decentralized its National HIV/AIDS Program (the Programme National de Lutte contre le Sida) to make sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS services more available to rural populations. In addition to HIV/AIDS, Rwanda is confronted by endemic malaria; it is the leading cause of death in children under five (34.8%) and the second highest cause of morbidity (32.7%).

Goals and Objectives

HIV/AIDS

• Increase knowledge of the means to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission.
• Increase practice of HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors, notably condom use, abstinence, and fidelity.
• Build capacity and strengthen the skills of multi-sectoral Information, Education, Communication AIDS coordinators.
• Bring HIV/AIDS into public discourse.
• Reduce the stigma around Persons Linvig with AIDS (PLWA).

Gacaca

• Increase knowledge about the Gacaca law and Gacaca jurisidctions.
• Increase acceptance of the Gacaca process as a means leading to justice and reconciliation.
• Increase the number of prisoners and perpetrators of crimes during the genocide who confess.
• Bring about wide-spread participation in the Gacaca process through election of Gacaca judges, confession of crimes, and witness testimony.
• Gain national and international recognition for the Gacaca process.

Malaria

• Increase the understanding of malaria transmission and risk.
• Increase understanding of the roles of insecticide treaded nests (ITNs) and re-treatment in malaria prevention.
• Increase availability of ITNs and re-treatment.
• Improve capacity of Rwanda institutions to continue ITN and re-treatment demand creation, sales, and support systems.

PROJECTS

• HIV/AIDS
  Based on the high prevalence rates and the lack of adequate information and services for the population, the HIV/AIDS project in Rwanda focuses on community advocacy, capacity building, and youth. The primary components are the "KUBA" youth campaign (KUBA is a rough translation into English of the terms abstinence, fidelity and condom use), involving mass media and community mobilization events; town hall meetings to promote advocacy and reduce stigma; and the training of multi-sectoral behavior change communication teams. We work in six prefectures (regions) in Rwanda, per the USAID mandate.

• Gacaca
  The Gacaca project aims at instilling greater awareness of, and motivating participation in, the Gacaca reconciliation process. It incorporates mass and print media, community mobilization, and advocacy activities. A key element of the strategy calls for using trained community opinion leaders (COLs) who hold behavior change communication sessions in towns and villages throughout the country, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

• Malaria
  Johns Hopkins University/Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) supports some malaria activities through a sub-contract with Population Services International. The goal of the project is to increase the use and maintenance of ITNs and re-treatment to reduce the incidence of malaria morbidity and mortality among pregnant women and children under the age of 5.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

HIV/AIDS (KUBA)

• KUBA campaign launch with internationally recognized and local musicians
• Scenario contest in schools in collaboration with several Parlimentarians
• Dr. Dee's Caravan
• KUBA Fan Clubs
• Training of KUBA "Ambassadors"
• Local KUBA concerts, summer camps, radio spots, and Treasures Contest
• Distribution of KUBA materials (posters, billboards, t-shirts, educational cards, "What is AIDS?" brochures)
• National and Regional Town Hall Meetings to "Break the Silence"
• National broadcast of Town Hall Meeting in the Capitol
• Military Town Hall Meeting
• Radio Round Tables Town hall meetings and radio round-tables

GACACA

• Training of Gacaca COLs ("Emissaries")
• Behavior change communication (BCC) sessions held by emissaries throughout the country
• Development of Gacaca kit for emissaries containing a flipchart that explains the content of the Gacaca law, copies of the summary of research findings, printed handouts, badges, an aide-mémoire and copies of Inkiko Gacaca.(A bi-monthly newspaper covering the latest happenings of the Gacaca jurisdictions.)
• Technical assistance to publish and distribution of Inkiko Gacaca
• Gacaca song competition
• Film on Gacaca elections
• Gacaca soccer matches
• Radio round tables
• Production and tour of Gacaca play throughout the country
• Production and distribution of Gacaca election materials including posters, comic strips, stickers, t-shirts.

MALARIA

• Qualitative focus groups on consumer's preferences and perceptions
• Training of community-based agents through local grassroots and international NGO networks
• Development of training module
• Mass media promotional campaign (radio spots, weekly radio show, pamphlet)
• Interpersonal communication sessions with local grassroots organization and businesses