Samuel Habimana, Executive Director of RRGO had the privilege of participating and delivering a presentation at the 39th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), hosted at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles, California, USA, from November 1 to 4. This event provided a valuable opportunity to engage with and receive feedback from a diverse panel of experts in the field of trauma management and research.
During my presentation, I shared the ongoing results of my research, which focuses on the impact of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) on alleviating trauma symptoms and enhancing resilience, social cohesion, and forgiveness among survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. Importantly, our findings revealed that a mere six hours of CRM intervention distributed over three consecutive days led to a substantial reduction in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, anger, and emotional dysregulation, while simultaneously boosting resilience, social cohesion, and forgiveness
