Cecilia

Cecilia was 6 years old during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Her mother was raped by a gang of killers 4 times in front of her, and she was herself raped. Her father was killed and her mother died right after genocide. Later, when she in high school, she was raped again and had a baby. When she got married and started a family, she told us that she was never happy. She was suffering from a complex of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders including frequent flashbacks, reviving the traumatic events and avoiding the place where she was born and raised. She reported a number of psychosomatic disorders including chronic generalized malaise and disconnection from her limbs. The relationship with her husband was unhealthy - she experienced sexual anhedonia and she felt confused about motherhood, leaving the care and education of her children to her husband. Life was meaningless before she benefited from the UCP program, she said.

During the training of the CHAs, she was able to tell and retell her entire story for the first time. Her CHA colleagues visited her and performed a traditional ritual on her parents’ behalf to recognize and support her as a wife. At the end of the training, she reported a tremendous improvement of her symptoms. Two months after the training, she said “I am happy as a mother and as a wife. I can now take good care of my children, and my relationship with my husband has become so much healthier that he always reminds me to join and facilitate our therapeutic groups as he enjoys the benefits that I have harvested from the healing program. I no longer have nightmares, my psychosomatic problems have disappeared and I have been able to visit the place where I was born and raised…. I feel happy and healthy”.