Help 450 Rwandan Prisoners to Become Peacebuilders

On April 27, 2021, ten FPH mediators (three females and seven males) had a meeting to assess their role in the social and economic conflicts resulting from the Covid-19. It was an opportunity to share the challenges encountered and the lessons learned. In the discussions, the mediators were able to show that there have been many conflicts, especially family conflicts due to the current situation which has brought about the critical financial and social situation. FPH mediators were able to mediate many of the cases of conflict between spouses, children, and their parents as well as between neighbors.

 In the group discussions, the following were the findings:

• Mediation skills helped the released inmate to reintegrate into their communities
• Today there is a rise of new forms of conflict that we were not used to existing.
• There has been a lot of violence, whether physical, moral and sexual
• Poverty has led to misunderstandings and quarrels between spouses, families, and neighbors
• The pandemic has had a negative impact on the psychological aspect in terms of traumatism, and depression

The following were the challenges:

• Lockdown and quarantine prevented the work of mediation and conflict transformation in real-time
• Limited usage, skills, and access to digital tools in the peacebuilding activities
• It was not easy for the released inmates to engage in mediation activities due to the fact that the wider community in which they belonged lack trust in them.

 Adolphe ( a released prisoner)

“It was very difficult to be reintegrated into our communities from which we came from. The knowledge we have received from the different pieces of training has helped the released prisoners to be humble and accept all challenges they faced so that people can see that they have changed. In the very first days, things were worse because everyone was hiding and running away from us and our friends did not want to approach us. If we could not be prepared in the training we have received, we would have been depressed or done bad things that could have put us back in prison”