YOUNGSTOWN — A group of counseling program students from Youngstown State University recently traveled to Rwanda, where they shared their knowledge of social emotional learning, trauma informed care, mindfulness and emotion regulation with local childcare workers and teachers.

Over a period of two weeks, nine graduate students, including Ara-Leah Hammann, 22, of Akron, and Julia Carson, 22, of Niles, led by their professor, Dr. Victoria Kress, worked side by side with two organizations, HopeMadeReal and Centre Marembo that connected them with survivors of genocide and victims of gender violence.

They also were given a glimpse into how the country has embraced restorative justice while also learning about Rwandan culture.

In 1994, the Hutus of Rwanda carried out a brutal attack on the minority ethnic group, the Tutsi. One hundred days later, an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu people in opposition to the slayings were murdered by extremist Hutu militias.

The origins of the genocide are rooted in the colonial period in Rwanda, when Belgian rule sowed division among the country’s three ethnic groups — the Tutsi, Twa and the Hutus.

Since then, the genocide has left a lasting impact on the country and its people, the large-scale violence now standing as a reminder of the dangers of ethnic and political divisions.

As a specialist in trauma, Kress called Rwanda a great success story seeing how the country has since progressed as a nation.

“It’s a study in forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation, and it’s a case study for the effectiveness of restorative justice,” she added.

THE TRIP

Carson admits she wasn’t familiar with the country prior to going on the trip, but she took time to learn about the country before stepping on a plane to go and teach them.

“I was interested to see how a country managed to completely rebuild itself in 29 years,” Carson said. She added, “And I was interested in seeing and hearing stories about the people and their resiliency.”

To prepare for the trip, the group spent several months working on different tasks they were given to then composite into a lesson plan that they practiced administering on each other ahead of demonstrating them in Rwanda.

“When we got there, there were some alterations we needed to make because of the language barrier or children or teachers we were working with needing something different so we recognized what needed to be changed and went from there,” Hammann said.

The group largely focused on helping them deal with traumatic experiences.

“They have other coping mechanisms, whether it be faith or relying on each other,” Hammann said, but they wanted to stress how crucial mental health education is, especially to a country that’s been through so much trauma.

Hammann said many of the children they visited were children from underdeveloped parts of the region, many of whom are foster children.

Part of what the group did, according to Hammann, was help those educators and childcare workers become more trauma informed to work with children who have been through hardships.

But the group also had to weigh the other issues teachers there faced with their students, “It was very eye opening for us,” Carson said. “Because they wondered how we’re supposed to teach about mental health when we have kids coming to class that haven’t eaten for two days.”

The group utilized different methods but they explained the “Three Collective Breaths” routine that Hammann explained helps a child refocus so that they ease their minds when feeling “aggravated or overwhelmed.”

Sometimes the group would use “Weather Reports” to teach Rwandan educators how to gauge the emotions of their students based on the weather they say describes how they feel. The graduate group said they also tried the same technique using colors.

Carson said that oftentimes mental health is placed on the backburner in the county especially considering it’s one where students’ basic needs aren’t always met but the trips end, “everybody was on the same page about how important mental and physical health are to survival.”

RECONCILIATION VILLAGE

A harrowing moment the group mentioned was when they visited a reconciliation village, which is one of six villages in Rwanda where an organization works to reinstate genocide perpetrators into villages with genocide survivors. Both sides speak and share their stories.

Hammann called it the most “impactful” part of her stay, adding, “You could see them holding back their emotions. It was real and it was raw.”

At one point, the group heard from a man who killed a woman’s family during the conflict and the woman herself. The pair now live side by side in their village, sharing the same waterspout, cooking together and becoming an important family member to the woman and her children, Hammann described.

“These were people that experienced the genocide in their 20s, I couldn’t imagine going through that at my age, let alone ever,” Hammann said.

Sharing that moment, Kress said it showed her the value and human capacity for forgiveness.

Aside from teaching the locals, they also were taught the ways of villagers in the Azizi Village.

The group spent time getting immersed in the villagers’ day-to-day living, from work, their crops, collecting water, how they cook and feed their livestock along with observing how everyone there took care of each other.

“The whole trip opened my eyes to seeing the individualist culture we have here versus the collectivist culture there,” Carson said.

Hammann said, “Everyone was helping each other, everyone was around each other. There’s a communal aspect to the country.”

Kress said she hopes to have future students take part in the trip.

“The students responded really well, everyone got what they needed out of the trip. I think the trip opened their eyes to the challenges most of the world faces,” Kress said.