At the end of the sociotherapy sessions, youth were found to have benefited from these interventions, reflecting various themes which expressed the effectiveness of sociotherapy on the participants’ psychological well-being.
Psychological healing
The problems brought up in group sessions included mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, as well as sleep disturbances, stigma, and trauma. Results from the participants’ testimonies indicated that participants healed their psychosocial problems, and saw sociotherapy as medicine for youth born to both perpetrators and survivors of the genocide.
“Sociotherapy is the medicine that healed me and restored my dignity and humanity.”
(Pauline, female aged around 27 years)
“After joining the group, I was able to get back on the right track of my life and overcome the problems I was facing in my daily life. I learned that nothing is impossible. I hope my future life is better. Therapeutic group helped me to realize that I am capable of doing something to improve and develop my life. My family had forbidden me to bring pigs in the house but I realized that the problem was that I was asking for their permission in a wrong manner. Now they permitted me to raise pigs.”
(Clemence, female aged around 23 years)
Youth indicated that before sociotherapy sessions, they were afraid of neighbors from different ethnic groups. Youth descended from genocide perpetrators were afraid of those descended from genocide survivors and vice versa. Youth from survivors thought that youth whose families were genocide perpetrators were also murderers. One youth, whose parent is in prison for genocide crimes, said they lacked parental care and through sociotherapy, they felt cared for:
“Through sociotherapy, I was treated like my second parents.”
(Julius, male in his 23s)
Participants whose parents were genocide survivors said they and their own children were negatively affected. With group therapy, youth become agents of change for their parents, helping to improve communication in the family. They shared changes in their parents’ abnormal behaviors and irrational thoughts:
“Usually a parent changes a child's mind and behavior but I have found that we young people also are able and powerful to change parents about the history of the genocide and its consequences.”
(Ericus, male aged around 26 years)
“I talked to my fellows in the group and they gave me different constructive thoughts that healed me. Sociotherapy helped me and my wounded heart was healed. Then I was able to talk to my mother about harmful things she does for me and she promised that it will not happen again. Nowadays, when she wants to ask me something, we sit together and talk (about) it. The sessions allowed me to find a way of communicating with my mother. Grudge for people who killed my family members was healed. The therapy helped me to heal my traumatized mother.”
(José, female aged around 25 years)
Growth, development and personality changes
The findings demonstrated that the psychological well-being of youths was restored through the dimensions of autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Sociotherapy contributed to the reconstruction of the community’s mental health and restored family cohesion that had been destroyed by the effects of the genocide and its aftermath. This approach contributes to personality change, development and maturity in the participants:
“I used to be angry because of the anger about who killed my family and this continues at the beginning of the session. At the fifth phase of new life orientation my heart became restored.”
(Emmanuel, male in his 20s)
“Phase of memories helped me to know that genocide occurred and caused me to lack paternal care. … it also helped me to become able to develop myself and develop confidence and empathy.”
(Wolfe, female in her 25s)
“Sociotherapy therapy helped me to have positive feeling, and cope with abnormal behaviors and thoughts such as stigma and shame. Using the ideas learned from the group, I also tried to change the mindset of my mother and then our family no longer has conflicts as it was before. I became social being and have known that I am human being who has respect and vision”.
(Susanne, female aged around 27 years)
Social cohesion and family relationships restored
In the sociotherapy sessions, participants developed eudaimonic states to help them regain the happiness and contentment lost due to their past experiences. The lives of youth born after the genocide were characterized by long-term dysfunctional relationships, often imbued with rampant violence, creating significant obstacles to the therapeutic work in which they were engaged. These relationships had devastating effects on their lives, families and school performance before the sociotherapy sessions. In the group sessions, these effects were controlled and the process of rebuilding PWB began. One participant attested:
“I had no friends because all the families hated me and my mother. Sociotherapy built my friendship starting from group participants who care(d for) me.”
(Nathanaël, male aged around 28 years)
“I didn’t know I hated others and was unable to sit with murderers and their descendants, but since I have joined sociotherapy I had found that murder is a human being who needed value and dignity.”
(Chanto, female in her 20s)
In the six phases of the program, youth approached the intervention as a form of medication they could use to rebuild their mental health and social resilience. Their healing was also impacted by the effective dialogues shared by each participant, each of whom respected the rules that contributed to the sustainability and efficiency of the sociotherapy approach. It was found that the ability to be part of a team, and share and learn from each participant’s individual histories was the key to the process. The sociotherapy participants built relationships, learned to be together, work together, solve problems and cope with difficulties arising from the effects of genocide and its aftermath, which had been transmitted from their parents and other relatives.
Sexual reproductive health problems
Young adulthood is the period for exploring and developing aspects of personality and behavior, often influenced by exposure to a variety of attitudes and ways of life that can impact their health. The sociotherapy participants developed mental well-being through their participation in the sessions held in their communities. Through this community health intervention, participants attested to improved self-control and competence. One young woman testified that the sessions contributed many psychological and social benefits, helping to restore lost trust and cope with feelings of anger, loneliness, and shame at having unwanted pregnancies. The shame, loss of responsibility, fear, and stigma did not allow her to attend the policies of the government or community activities. However, the trust phase of the program helped her to overcome the irrational thoughts related to the loss of trust, empowering her to attend the policies, and control her fear. She began helping others in the community who had not attended the sociotherapy sessions, and hopes the program will be implemented in a large area due to its positive contribution to health.
A participant said:
“After providing early pregnancy, domestic violence started occurring in my family. Since I shared it to the group, my colleagues gave me constructive thoughts to implement. These helped me to become resilient and reconcile with my relatives and parents. I learned that Rwandans are unique … .I have the vision for changing other(s) in my community.”
(Angelus, female in her 25s)
Confidence and involvement in the community actions
Participants shared that before the sociotherapy sessions, they had suffered from various psychological problems, including disorganized behaviors and negative feelings caused by the trauma transmitted to them by their parents. Through the sessions, the participants indicated that they developed psychological and social well-being through self-control, self-acceptance, and personal growth. This intervention was found to have helped participants express themselves in their community. One participant attested:
“From the third session, they started to respect me and give a time for sharing (with) the group my psychological problems. They gave me a constructive thought and made me social. Sociotherapy reconstructed my dignity and helped me to have hope for the future. As they no longer (avoid) me in the group but help (ed) me, this helped me to have again the trust. The more I attended well and shared my perspectives in the group, they coped with fear and then made me stronger. I wish to return to school in senior (year) five. I plan to (have a) relationship with my family and work hard for my vision and hope.”
(Angelus, male aged around 25 years)
“The group sessions helped me to understood and overcome the consequences of my parents whose different ethnic groups. Their conflicts caused me to my dropping out school. Now I am resilient.”
(Susanne, female aged around 27 years)
Reconciliation and forgiveness
The youth participants tended to give long-winded backstories, putting their actions in perspective within the greater social context, and describing how they benefited from the sociotherapy sessions. Youth indicated that they contributed to the process of reconciliation by participating in various activities, mostly in their families and communities. Among the activities related to reconciliation, participants helped their parents to forgive genocide perpetrators, request forgiveness from genocide survivors, pay restitution for property destroyed in the genocide, foster social cohesion, and reconstruct family affected by the genocide. Youth also contributed greatly to building social cohesion and promoting socio-cultural values. Said one participant born to a genocide survivor:
“Sociotherapy helped me to cope with (feelings of) revenge to the families that killed my family. Then, I also coped with irrational thoughts of not getting married the descendant from the genocide perpetrators.”
(Ericus, male in his 26s)
Through forgiveness, participants indicated that they benefited tremendously when they chose to forgive, a process that helped free them from the harmful past and allow them to realize their potential. This forgiveness also helps overcome limiting beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes. The forgiveness found in the process of sociotherapy was the crucial step that released participants’ mental and emotional energies, which they can now apply to creating better lives. A descendant of genocide survivors testified:
“Group sessions helped me to have forgiveness for the perpetrators and their descendants. I did not believe that my child was married to a family member who committed genocide, but now I would allow it because I have forgiven them and found that they are just like everyone else.”
(Lea, female aged around 27 years)
In terms of restoration, the former prisoners who participated in the genocide were influenced by their descendants who took part in sociotherapy. These individuals then decided to take responsibility for their actions and pay symbolic reparations to their victims in the form of apologies. The youth descendants of survivors took the first step to forgive each other, after realizing that they did not participate in the genocide, and recognizing the effects of the genocide on their psychological health. A descendant from a genocide former prisoner testified:
“When I joined the team and met my fellows who had bigger problems than mine, they talked to me and I was able to heal them. Also, I learned the severity of my father’s crime of genocide. I decided to convince him to ask for forgiveness to the family that imprisoned him due to his crime. I also encouraged him to pay back the properties he destroyed during genocide.”
(Pacis, male in his 25years)
Another participant said:
“Sociotherapy sessions helped me to have again trust and become psychologically reconstructed because I found that there are other people like me who have faced difficult problems. As my father will return in our family in two years later from the prison, I am feeling well.”
(Alice, female in her 24s)
Another participant testified:
“They gave me constructive opinions. I coped with revenging plans on behalf of my family. I accepted that my father did genocide. I decided to request for forgiveness and start reconciliation process to the genocide survivors. The Tutsi I called enemies are my beloved friends and we have sharing the goods. They keep my secret and we invite each other for sharing the goods. Sociotherapy helped me to take the new orientation of life without genocide ideologies. It restored my PWB.”
(Clara, female in her 27s)
After understanding the effect of their histories and on both their families and communities, youth born to genocide perpetrators who participated in the sociotherapy sessions encouraged their parents to ask forgiveness and reconcile with genocide survivors. One descendant of a family survivor testified:
“I decided to convince my father to forgive those who murdered our family. Now I visit the family, which my father told me that they killed our family and they treat me well. I even talk and play with their children.”
(Emmanuel, male in his 25s)
“But when joining sociotherapy program, I talked to my fellows and they healed me. Now I have forgiven people who committed genocide crimes and I learned that all Hutus are not bad because some of them did hide my parents and they survived. I am committed to interacting with those people and their descendants. I will teach my parents to forgive the perpetrators and those who can’t afford to pay back our properties, will not be asked to pay.”
(Francis, male in his 25s)
Healing transgenerational trauma and social isolation
The youngsters born after genocide grew up in a culture of silence and trauma, developing psychological disorders transmitted by family members who had participated in or survived the genocide. They also had negative feelings and moods that included anxiety, sadness, loss of trust, depression, loneliness, and guilt. In their daily lives, they experienced loss of concentration, poor life satisfaction, and loss of interest. During the sessions, participants reported developing an increased positive mood, improved life satisfaction, interest, and hope. A youth born to a genocide survivor shared with other participants this testimony of change:
“To come in the sociotherapy group sessions permitted me to be open and shared (with) the participants from my community about my sufferings and hate. They really provided to me the effective ideas that I found that I was the source of my problem. After being given the effective ideas, I reconciled with the victim of my sin. I was forgiven by them and there is the strong reconciliation. My children currently go in the households of the neighbors without any problem. Sociotherapy became my restorative and relaxation space. I appreciated and was mostly helped by the rule of secret/confidentiality, democracy and talking freely (about) my problem. I thank that I was recruited for participating in this effective intervention. If our group had the old people (adults), I would not attend it well or share my problem freely.”
(Philipo, male aged around 26 years)
Results showed that in the trust phase of the sessions, participants began to change their behavior and then started the reconciliation process. A participant testified:
“Since I have been coming in sociotherapy group sessions during 15 weeks, I psychosocially became restored. I found that there are others who have similar problems to mine, especially youth whose parents committed genocide. The ideas from the group session in new orientation phase helped to decide not revenge and getting married to anyone without ethnic discrimination.”
(Peter, male in his 20s)
Self-identification
In the group sessions, almost all participants shared information about health problems. These included lacking parental care, whether because their parents had been killed in the genocide, were imprisoned due to their actions in the genocide, were former prisoners, or were genocide survivors suffering trauma. There was also trauma associated with domestic violence occurring in their families, dropping out of school due to insufficient resources, posttraumatic disorders, depressive disorders, sexual and reproductive health problems, anxiety disorders, thoughts of revenge, and feelings of shame related to the crimes committed by their parents. Each participant who shared a problem was provided with ideas and suggestions by other group members about how to overcome the effects of these past experiences, in the process becoming more resilient, self-confident and self-evident. The participant testified:
“The group sessions helped me to reconstruct the relationship between my mother and grandfather that was destroyed in and after genocide when grandfather failed hiding us against the murders. Now there is the unity and reconciliation between them because of sociotherapy. I no longer have anger. I am also a social being and (have) no fear.”
(Obrey, male aged around 24s)
Decision making, responsibility and self-identification
Youth who attended the sociotherapy sessions saw the results of their efforts to become decisive and responsible. The family member of a genocide perpetrator testified:
“When I joined the group, my fellows helped me with advice, which helped to rebuild my relationship with my family. Today, I am (on) good terms with my mother to the extent that we agree on things and the same applies to the rest of the family members. When I meet with them, we sit down and talk about our life then advise each other. Before (the) sociotherapy program, I didn’t want to do things like poultry or animal rearing but now I have a cow, which my mother gave me for free. Now when I meet my mother, we have food and drinks together, something that was impossible before.”
(Patience, female in her 26s)
Youth descended from genocide survivors testified that after healing trauma characterized by anxiety and the inability to cope with certain aspects of daily life, they started working toward sustainable socio-economic development:
“I have no longer extreme fear, depression, and anxiety. I share with my colleagues including Hutu and Tutsi. I thank sociotherapy because all the distresses I had before the therapeutic sessions were coped with. I am working for getting the socio-economic development. I advise my family [genocide survivors] to forgive the genocide perpetrators. I advise my family to reconcile with the genocide perpetrator. I want to rebuilt the country with no discrimination and hatred.”
(Clara, female in her 27s)
Sexual reproductive health problems and addiction to alcohol and drug
Our results indicated that many young people were not interested in working when they could spend the day in cinema houses, using alcohol and drugs, or having unplanned or unwanted pregnancies due to trauma and other problems related to genocide. Avoidance and hatred of returning to their environment of origin was also observed among youth before sociotherapy, but after the sessions, participants testified to changes in their thinking, feelings, and behaviors. Some returned to their family homes, became more responsible in their reproductive decision making, and saw improvements in their sleeping patterns. One of the young ladies who participated in the therapeutic sessions testified:
“Through the group therapy, I realized how I was not respected, and I did not care myself nor children … was it my first time talking about what I passed through during the genocide! Today, I sleep well without using drugs or alcohol.”
(Lea, female in her 20s)
Another youth born to the perpetrator who became prisoner expressed:
“I started to heal and my heart was relieved off the burden. I actually learned that I was the cause for the constant conflicts with my father yet I used to put all the blame on him. My groupmates convinced me that I should change my behaviors and now my family is in a good relationship. I took initiative and encouraged my father to pay back others’ properties he destroyed during the 1994 Genocide. I even promised to help him. Overall, I am happy that in sociotherapy, we are united and determined to keep working together.”
(Aaron, male in his 25)
Psychological emotions and feelings
Most of the descendants of former prisoners and survivors developed many negative emotions and feelings that affected their hedonia and eudaimonia. They constantly lacked enjoyment and feeling of humanization. They often developed feelings of unhappiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger, which needed psychological interventions to achieve better health. Through the sociotherapy sessions, participants testified that their negative emotions and feelings were better controlled. One participant said:
“Through the sociotherapeutic sessions, I have no longer (feel) shame and anger but got healthier thoughts to live in harmony with the genocide survivor and no longer become afraid of being with their descendants.”
(Noella, female in her 26s)
The descendants of perpetrators and survivors reported that the group dialogues helped build them up and become social beings. One participant said:
“Before joining the group, I didn’t want to share about my life with anyone. Only in the group I tried at trust phase. Since my father has been prisoner, my heart was full of scars. I always felt lonely and hated myself. Sociotherapy discussions taught me that one can need help from someone else. It helped me to stop hating myself as I shared with the group my problem. They gave me constructive thoughts.”
(Pauline, female aged around 27 years)
A youth born to a genocide perpetrator said:
“When I joined the group, I learned that some of my colleagues had bigger issues and other(s) had smaller than mine. Group session allowed me to heal and regain hope. I realized that I am capable and I can achieve something in my life. I also took the initiative and encouraged my father to reunite with people whose properties he seized in the 1994 genocide and also pay them back. In fact, I helped him to start paying back. I work hard to make this happen because I know that if they came for the payments, they would auction our properties, including my own. Sociotherapy helped me to realize that I am capable of more great things than I imagined before. My heart was restored.”
(Paul, male in his 23s)
A descendant of a genocide survivor said:
“When I found sociotherapy program, I got the medicine I needed. Now I am calm and no longer ask my father about his history because I met other youth in the group who experienced more painful tragedies. I am fine now and I even visit the family of the people who killed my relatives and they too visit us.”
(Paulin, male in his 25s)