SURF's Annual Report 2008

Memory

With the support of Comic Relief, SURF continued its work in giving a decent burial to the victims of the genocide with the construction of two new memorial sites, in Mugina and Nyamirama - in which 32,000 and 12,000 bodies will be buried. There is still a need for further memorial sites, to ensure that the remains of victims of the genocide which continue to be identified through gacaca can be laid to rest with dignity.

By doing so, it provides a great help to survivors. Survivors still waiting to bury loved ones often feel haunted. That becomes an obstacle to rehabilitation and rebuilding life, and a sense of closure often only comes with burial. As such, SURF will continue to work with IBUKA over the year ahead in an attempt to generate the funding to complete the work.

Memory is at the heart of the Survivors' Research Centre in Kamonyi, which adjoins another memorial site in which 50,000 victims of the genocide are buried. In December 2008, SURF Rwanda relocated its offices to Kamonyi which is the first phase of its operation. Over the next two years, SURF will work in partnership with the National University of Rwanda to establish a historical archive of the genocide. The Survivors' Centre will house the archive, and serve as a vital hub for research on the genocide and the situation of survivors today.

There are many documents relating to the genocide that lie abandoned in sites around Rwanda. The Centre will collect and archive them, making the information accessible to scholars around the world. It will also chronicle the life of survivors before the genocide, an often neglected aspect of the history of Rwanda. It will integrate its work with the Kigali Memorial Centre in Gisozi which focuses on the genocide itself, and IBUKA's testimony archive in Nyanza.

However, the Centre will not only focus on survivors' past. It will have a unique focus on survivors' future too. The plan for SURF's work over the year ahead will be to focus more funding in the Kamonyi district, where there continues to be a great need amongst survivors. Through supporting shelter, livelihood financing and farming in the area it will serve as a showcase for SURF's work and the potential of survivors given the support they need. The Centre will host conferences and forums related to survivors, on issues such as healthcare, trauma and justice. It is also planned to create a media hub, to highlight the situation of survivors internationally, through online media, as well as nationally across Rwanda, through radio broadcasting.

Initiatives are under way for an educational programme at the Centre too, which will enable survivors to understand how the brain is affected by torture, to identify symptoms and empower survivors to manage intrusive memories more effectively. This is a new initiative, led by SURF Founder Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, with a hope that psychosocial analysts and psychiatric experts can come to Rwanda to share knowledge with our partners and determine interventions that work in the Rwandan cultural context. To enable this, SURF is exploring a strategic partnership with the UK-based Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture to leverage their expertise in the mental health field for the Centre. The organisation already plays a vital role in providing support to survivors in the UK.

There is also a significant neglect of the systematic collection of data related to the situation of survivors, and their needs. Much of SURF's work is based on anecdotal evidence. The Centre provides the opportunity to address this great need too, leveraging the research to ultimately deliver an improvement in the lives of survivors. Where necessary, SURF will begin to deliver programmes to demonstrate best practice, whilst continuing to support partners through technical support and capacity-building to enable them to more effectively serve the survivors they support. This is an exciting development in SURF's evolution, which we are certain will serve to deliver our mission, a world where the rights of survivors are respected.