Background

The Great Lakes region of Africa is located around the Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa, and includes the countries of Burundi, Rwanda and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Although diverse and complex, the region can be characterized by some common features: it is densely populated with high levels of poverty throughout the region. More significantly, its history is marked by periods of intense violence and conflict, particularly in Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC, where fighting in recent decades has left hundreds of thousands dead or displaced. In Burundi, a 13-year war which began in 1993 among the country's Hutus and Tutsis, resulted in the deaths of some 300,000 people. In neighboring Rwanda, around 800,000 were killed in a 100-day genocide in 1994. In the vast DRC, where eastern regions are far from the capital of Kinshasa, it is estimated that around 5 million people have died in recent years from the fighting or from starvation and disease. The populations of these countries face high levels of psychological trauma, but lack the resources needed to provide services to those in need. Women, in particular, have been particularly affected by the violence as well as the lack of services available to them.

Services

Building on experience providing primary and mental health care for survivors of torture and trauma, as well as experience in providing protections for victims of gender-based violence and for sexual minorities, Heartland Alliance is implementing programs in the Great Lakes region of Africa that provide:

• Psychosocial support for women and girls who have suffered violence through rape, soldiering or other kinds of trauma;
• Medical services addressing the needs of survivors of violence who are living with HIV;
• Training and capacity building of local organizations to provide individual and community level services;
• Vocational skill building for former child soldiers;
• Research on knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and social and health needs of vulnerable populations to contribute to the development of long-term, research-informed MSM HIV prevention programming.

International Programs

Heartland's programs in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:

• A rehabilitation center that offers mental, medical, vocational and legal services to former female child soldiers in Burundi with the aim of successful social reintegration;
• Comprehensive mental health services for women living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda as well as training for female counselors in the effects of psychological trauma associated with violence and sexually based violence on the immune system;
• A program developing community-level psychosocial support for victims of sexual and gender-based violence through counselor training in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
• An assessment of the MSM HIV/AIDS needs in Burundi.