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This project is a creative arts and healing programme for children aged 6-17, their families and psychosocial workers in Rwanda.
The project runs from January to December 2024 and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) follow-on funding for impact and engagement.
Background
‘Nkwihoreze’ (meaning "taking care and strengthening one another" in Kinyarwanda) is a creative arts and healing programme for children (aged 6-17), their families and psychosocial workers in Rwanda. This innovative, demand-led programme responds to the needs for creative and supportive intergenerational spaces, materials and training on trauma, memory, and healing identified in our previous research: "Connective Memories (CM): Intergenerational Expressions in Contemporary Rwanda" (see Pells et al. 2022).
Methodology
The project is working with 160 families across four districts in Rwanda through a series of arts-based workshops, with children (aged 6-12 and 12-17), then with parents, and then children together with their parent(s). The workshops are facilitated by young people, artists and psychosocial workers. Methods for delivering the workshops and evaluation research include storytelling, proverbs, poems, songs, and drawings. The materials developed will be used for a co-curated travelling public exhibition, and professional training for psychosocial workers.
This collaborative research and engagement project works closely with local communities through local partners UNM (Uyisenga Ni Imanzi) and AERG (Association des Etudiants Et Éleves Rescapés Du Genocide).
Outputs
- An online version of the exhibition and other outputs are available on the Nkwihoreze project website.
Team
Leaders
- Dr Kirrily Pells, Associate Professor of Childhood, UCL Social Research Institute, Co-Principal Investigator
- Dr Chaste Uwihoreye, Clinical Psychologist, Uyisenga Ni Imanzi, Rwanda, Co-Principal Investigator
Members
- Jean Marie Vianney Zivugukuri, Clinical Psychologist, UNM, Project Coordinator/Research Assistant
- Kristýna Skriczka, UCL Social Research Institute, Knowledge Exchange Officer
- Dr Yuko Otake, UCL Social Research Institute, Research Fellow
Project partners
- Uyisenga Ni Imanzi (UNM)
- Association des Etudiants Et Éleves Rescapés Du Genocide (AERG)