Justice and Human Rights Rwanda Project #36488

Help 450 Rwandan Prisoners to Become Peacebuilders

by Friends Peace House

Project Report | May 23, 2022
Mediation project updates

By Aime SIBOMANA | M&E Officer

In Rwanda, the Covid-19 restriction measures have been lowered, but prisons still have restrictions, especially for the implementation of projects.

During this reporting, two main activities were carried out:

1. Meeting with the facilitators: For this meeting, 13 facilitators (8 men and 5 women) participated. Here are the findings of the meeting:

a) Experiences shared and lessons learned recorded

b) After the assessment of the context of domestic violence and conflicts that the community is suffering from, the facilitators agreed to start working with the faith leaders until the Government allows project implementation in prisons

c) Participants agreed to bring more released inmates on board to integrate them into community mediation activities

2. A mediation workshop for faith leaders of local churches in the Eastern Province of Rwanda: It brought together 25 faith leaders (10 men and 15 women) with the aim of equipping them with basic skills to manage conflicts in their communities. After seeing the influence and trust the community has in the faith leaders, and after seeing the domestic violence and conflict the community goes through, we decided to train them so that they can support the mediation of community members and play a vital role in mitigating domestic violence.

STORIES:

Diogene:

"I'm really grateful for this opportunity, I used to mediate people, but I want to confess because I used to be a judge with bias and partiality. As now, we have a rang of skills in mediation and communication, I think we will help a lot of people to solve their conflict in a professional way"

Elizabeth:

“I just want to take this time to thank the person who thought of this wonderful initiative, we really needed these kinds of skills because we are in the midst of people in conflict who need mediation. I would like to recommend this workshop to all faith leaders as it is very important to us.

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Jan 24, 2022
Update: Mediators' Physical Gathering

By Aime Sibomana | Project Evaluation and Monitoring

Mediation Gathering

On Wednesday 27^th October 2021 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Friends Peace House mediators gathered to reflect on the impact of the pandemic and the way forward. The meeting brought together 11 mediators and two interns.

The agenda of the day highlighted the following points;

Opening remarks
The lessons learned during the pandemic
The challenges of mediation work and the current context of conflicts
Way forward

The meeting began with Silas Rwenyaguza's prayer at 10 am. After the prayer, the Friends Peace House coordinator welcomed the participants and thanked them for their commitment in the mediation work done during the difficult times of Covid-19.

The participants shared what they learned during the pandemic;

Conflict mediation and transformation are among the most important skills needed in the community.
They faced unfamiliar conflicts that led them to seek out other acquaintances that have helped them solve unusual conflicts.
The pandemic has made people skeptical to come together and taught mediators how to use technology to resolve conflicts.
Due to the use of technology, a budget was needed to mediate people, this taught mediators to manage their time well and they got to learn how to use the appropriate technology while mediating.
The mediators saw the importance of having a communication platform because they contacted each other for different types of conflicts.

Challenges;

Limited skills to use technology for virtual mediation.
Lack of internet connection, airtime or internet bundles for virtual mediation.
The poverty resulted from the pandemic has led to a high rate of conflicts which outnumbered mediators who were few in the communities where they were located.
The conflicts and crime rates increased in the communities, which challenged the mediators.
The full lockdown disrupted the mediation work because where technology was impossible, mediators would have to wait until the lockdown is over.

Way forward;

The FPH mediators found that they had worked but did not provide reports, so they decided to have a mediation form that must be completed at each mediation to report their actions and submit their report to FPH.
The mediators found it necessary to refresh their mediation skills.
The participants also found it necessary to resume the domestic violence programme.
The participants requested to integrate the released inmates in the mediation work in their communities.
The participants agreed to use the existing social media platforms to shape the mediation programme.
To think about innovations and initiatives that can bring more partners.

Mediation Gathering

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Sep 28, 2021
Update: Help Rwandan prisoners to become mediators

By Aime Sibomana | Project Evaluation and Monitoring officer

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