Mentors Ease Depression for Young Rwandan Heads of Households | Voice of America - English
One of the most devastating events of the past quarter century was the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Out of a population of close to 7 million people, at least 800-thousand people were killed. Many left behind were children who lost family members, and frequently one or both parents.
Almostevery family in Rwanda was affected by the genocide says child psychologistNeil Boris from Tulane University in New Orleans. "Behindthis came the HIV epidemic, so really it's kind of a 1, 2 punch," Borissays. "Rwanda has the highest proportion of what we call double orphans,that is, young people who have lost both parents? of any country where we feellike we have reasonable data. It's not just HIV, but it's HIV on top of thegenocide." Manyof these young people were left to head households filled with younger siblingsand relatives. These young people frequently have no adults who they can turnto for advice and guidance. It's a situation that Boris says has left many ofthem emotionally scarred. In2004, Boris worked with the aid organization World Vision and the RwandanSchool of Public Health to study about 700 of these young family leaders whowere, at the time, around 20 years old. This means many of them were about 10years old when the genocide occurred. Borissays they found more than half of them suffered from depression. Of the group,about two-thirds had lost both parents, a quarter of those people said that atleast one parent was killed during the genocide. "Thesecond thing we found," he says, "was that taking care of others inthe home meant that the young people themselves couldn't pursue school and onlyabout 7% of them had even gotten to secondary school in their lives." Theresearchers also found that the deeper the depression, the more theseyoungsters felt by were marginalized from the community, and from friends. Manyof these family groups didn't have enough food to eat. That affected theirphysical health, and contributed to the caregivers' depression. Almost halfsaid they only ate one meal per day over the previous week. And more than threequarters of the young heads of household rated their health as poor or onlyfair. Inhis survey, Boris learned that these young people had said only a quarter ofthem had an adult friend. After looking at this, the researchers suggested someways to help these young households ? by getting adult community volunteers toreach out to them and mentor them. "We'veshown that that alone improves depression over time, improves degree of socialisolation over time, and really helped these young people as time wenton," Boris says. Borisis currently working on more ways to help these young heads of household. Hesays he believes that with time and assistance, the young people of Rwanda canget beyond the tragedy of the genocide and help their society recover. Hispaper is published in the .