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Thesis advisor: M. Shawn Copeland / “Every wound leaves a scar and speaks of a hi-story; it reminds you that you are alive.” The wisdom of this Rwandan proverb is so vivid if we consider the Rwandan tragic history that led to the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi and its aftermath, the scars it has left to the whole country and the need for a systematic theology that assesses “the labor of memory.” Since a family which does not remember vanishes, I argue that memory is a theological imperative and at the same time any discourse on God in post-genocide Rwanda must start from the wounds of denial of self and of the other, validating the inextricable link between theological discourse and people’s context. Furthermore, the need for renewal of ecclesial imagination in post-genocide Rwanda cannot be overemphasized. The church as a wounded human story must be committed to memory and new evangelization rooted in self-criticisms and our common and God-shared humanity. If theology is to assist the Church in reconciling Rwandans, it must free itself from captivity to a church that has been shaped, almost from its Rwandan beginnings, by bourgeois and class sensibilities and is marked by concern for respectability, material success, authoritarianism, mere orthodoxy, a weak or facile understanding of the God of Jesus Christ, and lip-service to his Gospel. If theology is to assist the Church in reconciling Rwandans, it must rethink itself in the current broken and scarred Rwandan bodies. Theology must reimagine humanity, Church, and society in light of the memory of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It must take up a critical perspective rooted in “the way” of Jesus––a way of making room for God, a way of making room for all others. This dissertation opines that the wounds of the body of Christ must be a challenge to us. In resurrecting Thomas’ faith by letting him touch the wounds, “Jesus was telling him precisely [this]: it is where you touch human suffering, and maybe only there, that you will realize that I am alive, that ‘it’s me.’ You will meet me wherever people suffer.” In this project, I argue that despite Rwanda’s past tragedies, Rwanda is a mirror to the world and its salvation will only be found in memory. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Telecentres are an important tool for promoting socio-economic development in areas with very low levels of e-access. They have the potential to offer benefits to rural communities in education, health, agriculture and business. The purpose of this study was to explore the strengths and weaknesses of telecentres in promoting specific socio-economic objectives set in Rwanda’s National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI II) plan 2006 - 2010. The findings were that telecentres have been effective in contributing to community development through access to information, skills development, job creation, study opportunities, low cost in telecentre services and increased income. The three main challenges that hinder rural communities from advanced e-access were found to be literacy and level of education, language barriers, and lack of skills and awareness. Future policy requires comprehensive guidelines to guide the deployment of rich local content in telecentres that will enable more effective use of these facilities to promote socio-economic development through e-Soko type projects, Umuganda activities and other community or egovernment initiatives.

The explorative research is set out to evaluate if FAWE Rwanda Chapter has, in the eyes of informants, implemented the objectives set for their school program; ‘The Centre of Excellence for Girls’. By a target achievement evaluation model aims this research to explore if the organizational structure design of ‘The Centre of Excellence for Girls’ has had any impact on FAWE Rwanda Chapter’s possibilities to successfully implement their objectives. This research includes six depth-interviews with informants from ‘The Centre of Excellence for Girls’ and one depth-interview with an informant from FAWE Rwanda Chapter. Questionnaire forms where handed out to two of the participating informant groups; the teachers and the students at ‘The Centre of Excellence for Girls’. Forty questionnaire forms were handed out to the students and ten questionnaire forms to the teachers, with the purpose to support or weaken the data given from the depth-interviews. The result shows that FAWE Rwanda Chapter has not completely succeeded to implement their set objectives. Some of the objectives are implemented, while some are not! The result shows that the decentralized organizational structure of ‘The Centre of Excellence’ is rather complicated. This has lead up to lacks in the information flow and miscommunication in between the organizational levels, and lacks in understanding the purpose of the objectives.

Stroke survivors in low-resource settings like Rwanda often face high levels of disability, and access to rehabilitation care is limited. To effectively allocate resources, it is crucial to understand and address the most significant concerns of stroke survivors and explore contextually appropriate approaches to post-stroke care. We conducted a needs assessment survey of 337 patients from six hospitals in Rwanda, collecting data at discharge and three months post-stroke. Rwandan stroke survivors have similar unmet functional needs as those in high-resource settings. However, over half of the participants still reported moderate to severe mobility, usual activities, and social/recreational activities needs at three months post-discharge. Stroke survivors indicate that limited access to services was a significant barrier to addressing these needs. Community-based interventions may be an important method for addressing these needs; however, rehabilitation services are limited, warranting the need to consider alternative strategies to address these needs. The thesis explores the potential of involving community health workers (CHWs) in providing rehabilitation interventions for stroke survivors in community settings. Although the effectiveness of CHWs in providing physical rehabilitation interventions in low-resource settings remains uncertain and sustainability of these interventions outside the studied context is also unclear. Subsequent the use of CHWs for post-stroke rehabilitation is a worthwhile endeavor. To facilitate the implementation of CHW-delivered interventions, two crucial steps were considered: the development of an intervention and establishing an operational team that will ensure implementation success. A multi-phased process was used to design a new evidence-informed post-stroke community-level mobility intervention suitable for low-resource settings. The Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System enabled the intervention design and description toward facilitating its accurate replication. The next step is to test the intervention’s feasibility, effectiveness, and implementation in low-resources settings. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The issue of post-stroke disability is significant in Rwanda due to limited resources for stroke survivors. To improve the resources available for stroke survivors in such settings, it is important to understand their specific needs and explore alternative approaches to provision of interventions. We surveyed 337 patients from six hospitals in Rwanda to describe their functional unmet needs after stroke and at three months. Within 90 days of stroke, Rwandan stroke survivors have more moderate to severe functional needs in almost all usual activities, which is twice compared to post-stroke unmet needs for stroke survivors living in areas with post-stroke resources. Three months after leaving the hospital, over half of the participants still have moderate to severe functional needs in mobility and other usual activities, working, and social/recreational activities. Rwandan stroke survivors identified that not being able to use therapy services made it difficult to address these needs. These data indicate it is crucial to focus on community-based interventions to address the needs of stroke survivors. In my research, I investigated whether Community Health Workers (CHWs) could administer rehabilitation treatment in resource-limited areas. Although the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation by CHWs is uncertain, there is potential for CHWs to participate in delivering rehabilitation. It is worth considering the use of CHWs for post-stroke rehabilitation. In order to successfully implement CHW-delivered interventions, two important steps were considered. First, an intervention was developed. Second, an operational team is being established to ensure the intervention’s success. The process of designing a new evidence-informed post-stroke community-level mobility intervention suitable for resource-limited areas, consisted of multiple phases. The Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System was used to design and describe the intervention accurately so that it could be replicated easily. The next phase involves examining if the intervention is practical, efficient, and can be successfully implemented in areas with limited resources.

A blackout is defined as the loss of electric power for a given period in a particular area. With increasing dependence on reliable electric power, the social and economic ramifications of blackouts are dire, negatively impacting the productivity, safety, and security of communities. To reduce blackout occurrence, power system planners incorporate redundancy and advanced controls to the grid to make it more adaptable to disturbances. However, adding redundant transmission lines is not only expensive, it is suboptimal in some contexts. While it is unattainable to have no blackout, it is possible and necessary to implement measures that minimize the likelihood and scale of these outages. This work proposes a solution that uses a microgrid with advanced energy storage and solar PV to mitigate blackouts in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. A description and steady state analysis of major weaknesses in the Rwandan electric grid is presented. A microgrid application capable of islanding from the system is simulated in the steady state and shown to strengthen the system and decrease the likelihood of blackouts in Kigali. The composition of the microgrid is then designed, simulated, and optimized for technical and financial feasibility using the HOMER model. A microgrid that uses energy storage and solar PV is shown to not only be feasible, but also competitive with current costs of electricity in Rwanda. For comparison, different combinations that include diesel generation are also simulated. / Master of Science

In 1994 genocide occurred in the tiny, crowded country of Rwanda in the Great Lakes region of Africa. What was unique to that genocide was its efficiency and use of low technology weapons: somewhere around 800,000 to one million persons were killed, mainly by machetes and bullets, and often by neighbors, former friends, or relatives that they knew by name. The killers had been well-prepared for their roles via myth-building and reinforcement of old fears against the victims. There was little to no international intervention, although Rwanda had close political ties with France and a colonial history with Germany and Belgium. Although dozens of books and articles have been written seeking to understand, in both practical and theoretical ways, the motivations of the killers, this research looks to add to that body of knowledge by considering the ideas of a theorist outside traditional political theory — René Girard — and how they may shed some light on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Girard's conception of mimetic rivalry and his theorization of scapegoating illuminate society-based characteristics of political competition between well-established factions of Rwandan society. These characteristics, if subjected to various manipulations of social positioning and control, can serve to precipitate brutal acts of believed conciliatory violence against a perceived causal group. Without examining the origin of violence in society, an understanding of the 1994 genocide is incomplete, and policies designed to prevent such genocides from recurring may not be effective. / Master of Arts

Yes / In 2014, twenty years after the Rwandan genocide, the first trial took place in France of a Rwandan génocidaire, Pascal Simbikangwa, despite the presence on French territory of a number of genocide suspects for many years, various extradition requests by Rwanda – declined by France – and numerous arrests and investigations. This article looks at issues of jurisdiction regarding the Simbikangwa case and the reasons the French courts heard his case, and examines some issues which may be of significance in the choice of arena for the bringing to justice of Rwandans genocide suspects living in France in future.

Yes / How, after 1945, did France and Germany succeed in overcoming their rivalry, a rivalry marked by numerous bloody conflicts, to heal the wounds of the past and work towards a common European future? How, after 1994, did Rwanda succeed in overcoming the devastation of the genocide and reconcile its communities, to become a key actor in East African regional integration? These two difficult reconciliations are at first sight very different, but they warrant comparison, in order to gain a better understanding of the strategies which enabled each party in each case to overcome the most unimaginable challenges. Through their respective approaches, addressing the scars of the past and via respectful joint acts of remembrance, France and Germany on the one hand and the Rwandan communities on the other, have been able to rediscover peace and form a desire to work together as well as with their neighbors towards attaining a more prosperous future.

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2012