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Women, Peace and Security Initiatives: Rwanda
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In-Country

UNIFEM Commemorates November 25th and the 16 Days of Activism Campaign
UNIFEM, Africa Rights
November 2004
To mark the 16 Days campaign, UNIFEM and NGO African Rights will launch Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits: Living With Genocide, Rape and HIV/AIDS in Kigali, Rwanda. The publication, which was supported by UNIFEM’s Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, contains research and a series of interviews conducted over a year in 11 of Rwanda's 12 provinces with "rape survivors," many of whom are living with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The study hopes to influence and improve responses to sexual violence by addressing a serious and common problem in conflict and post-conflict situations — the rapid spread of infections and disease through sexual violence. For more information, please contact donnah.kamashazi@undp.org At African Rights, contact Rakiya Omaar, rights@randatel1.rw

HIV/AIDS Treatment for Rape Victims
The First Lady of Rwanda, Mrs Jeanette Kagame, will visit the Housanda1.com
es of Parliament on Tuesday, April 20th to mark ten years since the Rwandan genocide. As the founder of PACFA (Protection and Care of Families Against HIV/AIDS), a Rwandan programme which advocates for specific policies, strategies and actions to fight HIV/AIDS among women, children and families, Mrs Kagame will launch a campaign to access HIV/AIDS treatment for women who contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of being raped during the genocide. UNAIDS estimates that half-a-million people in Rwanda are infected with the virus: the population of Rwanda is approximately 8 million.
For more information please e-mail Nick Bell, Communications Officer, or visist Survivors Fund (SURF).

Women’s Survivors of Gender-based Violence during the Genocide
Countrywide campaign to raise awareness on issues of sexual gender based violence during the genocide in Rwanda. As a result of this campaign, many of our women came forward, and this gave birth to a programme popularly known as the The Polyclinic of Hope - a Centre for Women Victims of Violence. This is an Initiate which so far has shelter women, medically supported the women, counseling on HIV/AIDS, bringing awareness on issues of inheritance rights and more so looking at it as initiative promoting peace as its ultimate goal. For more information visit Rwanda Women’s Network.

International

MADRE's Campaign in Rwanda
MADRE's sister organization in Rwanda, BENIPUHWE, is an association of women which includes both survivors of the genocide and women who perpetrated the slaughter. In this amazing effort at reconciliation, the women are coming together to deal with problems that confront them all: poverty, homelessness, bereavement and trauma. This organization is building a new community both physically and emotionally, as women form bonds and assist one another with the reconstruction of 180 dilapidated homes as well as an agricultural initiative. MADRE is assisting the women by providing potable water and livestock, the latter of which supplements diets as well as being used commercially. The profits of raising livestock help the women to afford health care and primary educational needs. The policy of mass rape that was part of the Rwandese genocide resulted in the spread of HIV/AIDS among the surviving female population. In response, MADRE's partner organization,the Clinic of Hope in Kigali, has commenced a public education program on the prevention of the disease. For more information visit MADRE.