I’d like to make a request on behalf of SURF (http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk), a small UK-based charity that advocates for survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. Their role is primarily to enable survivor organisations to be self-sufficient through building their capacity and fund-raising, and undertaking the monitoring and evaluation required by the funders.
A recent project they have been supporting is an initiative undertaken by an organisation made up of young orphan survivors, many of whom are university graduates – AERG. They identified a need for university accommodation for orphans, since most university accommodation is not available during holidays or guaranteed for the whole of a student’s time at university. Following a fundraising campaign (http://www.1dollarcampaign.org/project.html), they have now started building the accommodation block.
However, AERG have some concerns about the potential problems associated with 200+ 19-25 year old genocide survivors living together. All these students will have lost close family members and have experienced very distressing events. This could make the accommodation a very supportive place to be, but as these experiences affect people in different ways, there is also the potential for tension and further distress, especially around the anniversary of the genocide.
AERG are looking for:
a) Advice on how they could assess incoming students to get some idea of their level of psychological distress and any issues the people managing the home should be aware of. For example, any structured assessment interviews that have been used successfully in a Rwandan context.
b) Advice on how the accommodation can be managed in a way that makes it a supportive environment and minimises the escalation of collective distress.
I’m not involved with AERG, I’m just a middle-person, but if you have any ideas I’ll be very happy to pass them on. Alternatively, if you would like to talk to the Director of SURF (who is the person who asked me for help), let me know and I’ll put you in touch with him.

I’d like to make a request on behalf of SURF (http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk), a small UK-based charity that advocates for survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. Their role is primarily to enable survivor organisations to be self-sufficient through building their capacity and fund-raising, and undertaking the monitoring and evaluation required by the funders.
A recent project they have been supporting is an initiative undertaken by an organisation made up of young orphan survivors, many of whom are university graduates – AERG. They identified a need for university accommodation for orphans, since most university accommodation is not available during holidays or guaranteed for the whole of a student’s time at university. Following a fundraising campaign (http://www.1dollarcampaign.org/project.html), they have now started building the accommodation block.
However, AERG have some concerns about the potential problems associated with 200+ 19-25 year old genocide survivors living together. All these students will have lost close family members and have experienced very distressing events. This could make the accommodation a very supportive place to be, but as these experiences affect people in different ways, there is also the potential for tension and further distress, especially around the anniversary of the genocide.
AERG are looking for:
a) Advice on how they could assess incoming students to get some idea of their level of psychological distress and any issues the people managing the home should be aware of. For example, any structured assessment interviews that have been used successfully in a Rwandan context.
b) Advice on how the accommodation can be managed in a way that makes it a supportive environment and minimises the escalation of collective distress.
I’m not involved with AERG, I’m just a middle-person, but if you have any ideas I’ll be very happy to pass them on. Alternatively, if you would like to talk to the Director of SURF (who is the person who asked me for help), let me know and I’ll put you in touch with him.

I’m working on a desk review for World Vision, to help them produce guidance for their local, field-based staff on the processes of establishing, strengthening and maintaining a child protection reporting, response and referral mechanism.
The guidance will be used by programme-level staff working in the field to set up or strengthen systems for child protection concerns to be reported – either at community level, or the next level up. The guidance will also be used to help the same staff to facilitate setting up systems for referring cases on, or responding to the concerns which have been reported.
To help World Vision develop this guidance, I’ve been asked to identify and review relevant materials produced by other organisations. This could include programme guidance regarding these processes, or manuals, project design documents, evaluations, research – anything that might help to inform World Vision’s guidance for local staff who aim to establish, strengthen or maintain a child protection reporting, response and referral mechanism in their location.
I’ve been able to find examples of higher-level reporting systems, but not so much at the field-level, and that’s what I’m really looking for.
The country, context and type of programme don’t matter – anything relating to setting up and strengthening the systems themselves would be very helpful, whichever child protection concerns they’re designed to respond to.
If you have anything that you think might be relevant, or can suggest somebody else I could contact, please send me a message or email me at Rebecca.r.horn@gmail.com. All ideas/ advice/ suggestions will be gratefully received!