Annemiek Richters

Annemiek Richters

Annemiek Richters, MD, anthropologist, is emeritus professor culture, health and illness Leiden University Medical Center and staff member of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From 2005 onwards she has contributed in a number of leadership capacities to the development of community-based sociotherapy Rwanda. The majority of her publications over the past years focus on research addressing themes that emerged from the practice of sociotherapy in a post-conflict society.

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research.
Community Based Sociotherapy
Rwanda

 

 

Annemiek Richters

Title of keynote:

Rwandan community-based sociotherapy Its philosophy, practice, impact and expansion into other countries

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT
Community Based Sociotherapy as practiced in Rwanda (CBS) is a group-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) intervention for people suffering through relational and collective trauma resulting from the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, its preceding war, and its aftermath. It is a response to the increasing realization that the sequelae of collective violence affect not only the emotional world of individuals, but also destroys the space between them, and frays or even destroys the relationships that in stable circumstances constitute people’s life-worlds. To recover the capacity to form supportive new relationships, CBS facilitates re-engagement with everyday life and its ensuing healing, reconciliation and social transformation. Since 2004 CBS has been shaped by the perspectives of a multitude of its trainers, facilitators, group participants and researchers to become increasingly owned by Rwandan people and recognized throughout the country as a valuable support of post-genocide social reconstruction initiatives. This lecture will focus on: CBS as a context-driven and culturally sensitive intervention; the value of assessing its impact through a bottom-up approach compared to an international driven one in the form of, for instance, a controlled-clinical trial; how its cross-border expansion demonstrates its adaptability to a range of settings and cultural contexts without loss of its efficacy.