SURF’s Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt OBE, helped to register AVEGA-AGAHOZO (agahozo is a kinyarwanda word, which means “dry one’s tears”) in 1995, which she chronicles in her recent book, You Alone May Live. AVEGA was the first partner of SURF, with funding raised by Comic Relief in 1997. And I was privileged to attend its 15th Anniversary event this summer in Kigali – at which the First Lady, Mrs Kagame, opened the new AVEGA clinic.

SURF continues to support the work of the organisation today, along with a number of other dedicated funders including Msaada and CAFOD .

Odette is one of five remarkable “Unsung Heroes” that have been shortlisted for the Guardian International Development Achievement Award. She is one of a number of incredible widows that make the work of AVEGA possible, and your vote for her will be a vote for all the team that now helps over 25,000 widows of the genocide in Rwanda.

To register your vote click on this link or the thumbnail below, and vote Odette Kayirere.

Thank you!

During my current visit to Rwanda, I have been working on several reports to donors.

One report in particular that I wish to highlight, is that which we submitted to Comic Relief on the work of IBUKA and AVEGA Western Region (AWR), which have received funding through SURF for a capacity-building project.

The grant for AWR, which represents widows of the genocide out of its base in Cyangugu, has been transformative; enabling the organisation to deliver support to, and advocate for, 3,467 genocide widows and over 10,000 of their dependents.

The office of AWR reopened in 2008 as a result of the grant, and the legacy of the project is a network of self-sufficient associations of widows which have established successful income-generating activities. One  example is ingoro y’urukundo (meaning “house of love”) in Uwinteko village in Mururu sector of Rusizi district.

Mukabucyana Berte (centre in black tshirt) with members of ingoro y’urukundo and SURF Program Manager, Joram Sebatware (centre back)

“Before everybody was on their own,” Mukabucyana Berte, Coordinator of ingoro y’urukundo, told us during our visit to AWR to collate the report to Comic Relief:

“We hardly had anything to keep our life going. But now you can see for yourself. Everybody looks smart and healthy. All this is because of our mother AVEGA which facilitated us to form this association, trained us on how to form and manage income generating projects, after which they helped us to get capital which enabled us to start business. We sell agricultural products, and out of the interest that we have got, we established a hair salon. From all this we get money for the members to afford their household needs. There is no way we can satisfactorily thank AVEGA, for all that they have done for us.”

As AVEGA celebrated this weekend its 15th Anniversary, its work is proving to be more critical than ever in supporting widows of the genocide, many which are ageing. SURF has the easy task, of reporting on such exemplary work!

Our largest funder in 2009 was the Charities Advisory Trust which, through its remarkable Good Gifts Catalogue initiative, enabled this work. Searching through our film archive, I discovered this report on the project from the BBC in 2005, which though dated highlights how the programme continues to run to this day

Click here to view the embedded video.

Over the past year, we have been able to provide more livestock to survivors of the genocide than ever before. Over 1,000 goats and nearly 10,000 chickens were distributed (as well as 2 prize bulls!) through our partners, including AVEGA Agahozo, AOCM and Solace Ministries. This has helped to boost the standard of living, build confidence and self esteem, and reduce poverty and vulnerability amongst survivors.

I felt isolated, desperate and trapped. I seemed to be the only person who understood what had happened in Rwanda, but no one wanted to hear me. I visited NGOs working in Rwanda and the UK Department for International Development, pleading for funds to be channelled to survivors. As had happened in Rwanda, I was informed politely that funds were already committed to the country, and with the emergency period coming to an end, there were no more earmarked for it.

With a letter from SURF published in today’s International Herald Tribune, our pleading continues.

In addition, the new Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, recently stated that he has “put DFID staff on notice now, that every time I visit our work overseas I’m going to be asking how are you engaging with local people and civil society, as well as their government?”

We hope that this will result in future funding from DFID Rwanda being channelled directly to survivors, rather than exclusively to Government.

Andrew Mitchell in his review of Linda Polman’s War Games, emphasises that “we need to face up to the difficult issues that Polman raises” which includes the mistakes made in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when more international funding was channelled to the perpetrators of the genocide than to the survivors.

An excellent overview of the international development landscape in Rwanda published by the Institute for Philanthropy this week, features the work of SURF partner AVEGA, and concludes:

As a brief visitor to the country it is all too easy to see the huge strides that the nation has taken since 1994 as evidence of reconciliation, but as with so much in Rwanda – still waters run deep. Non-violent coexistence is not the same as peace: tensions may go unexpressed violently but they are still very real.

Having now worked in Rwanda for sixteen years, SURF is no brief visitor to the country. However, we are still learning how deep the still waters run – as we hope international funders do so too.

A shared challenge for all survivors is dealing with the psychological effects of the genocide. As such, the focus of this year’s commemoration in Rwanda is on managing cases of trauma. It will also be the theme for the commemoration events across the UK this month.

Trauma is also a focus of You Alone May Live, the book published today by SURF Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt. In the book Mary documents how she provided support to AVEGA Agahozo in the immediate aftermath of the genocide, which lead to the establishment of SURF.

AVEGA was formed as a solidarity group to help widows of the genocide deal with trauma, and continues to address that need amongst its members through programmes such as that supported by CAFOD. In the UK, SURF partners with the Medical Foundation which delivers invaluable support to survivors still affected by trauma now living here.

Noam Schimmel this week writes in the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance that because of the trauma that survivors continue to experience living in Rwanda, they should be given the right of settlement outside of Rwanda:

For many survivors, remaining in Rwanda post-genocide poses insurmountable obstacles to their psychological health and well being. They are subject to flashbacks and continuous retraumatization. Many find themselves trapped in the fears prompted by their experiences, the sadness and pain, and the wounds that cannot heal because justice is so incomplete and because thousands of the perpetrators of the genocide have been freed leaving survivors feeling vulnerable and despondent that justice is not and will not be done.

It is for this reason, why focusing on addressing the trauma of survivors even beyond the commemoration is so important.

In addition, you can hear today SURF Patron Lindsey Hilsum report on Witness on the BBC World Service of her time in Kigali at the outbreak of the genocide on April 6th 1994.

IRIN this week reported on the importance of the organisation in empowering genocide widows, as well as chronicling the challenges that they continue to face in Rwanda today.

SURF has supported the work of AVEGA since its founding, through a number of our major donors. Comic Relief has supported most recently an extensive shelter project for homeless widows, and continues to support core funding for AVEGA West (in Cyangugu). The Sigrid Rausing Trust supports gender-based violence work, and income-generating activities are supported through Good Gifts. Critical funding has been provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), which supports health clinics based at AVEGA Central (in Kigali) and AVEGA East (in Rwamagana) through a Care and Treatment Project for HIV+ women survivors.

One of the beneficiaries receiving support through this project is Marceline. Marceline is a member of AVEGA, and through homebased care delivered through an AVEGA community development worker, Rose, she has been able to rebuild her life. As she testifies in the short film below: “If it hadn’t been for AVEGA, I don’t think I would be alive today.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Currently SURF is advocating for DFID to sustain their funding to this project through to December 2010, which is at risk of being wound down prematurely next month. As I prepare for a visit to Rwanda next week, this will be at the top of our agenda, to discuss how we can sustain the remarkable work that AVEGA has undertaken to date.

With your continued support, we hope that this will be possible.

For five years, DFID have funded a Care and Treatment of Rwandan Genocide Survivors Infected by HIV/AIDS Project – referred to as CTP – which has supported health clinics run by AVEGA Central, AVEGA East and Solace Ministries to deliver holistic antiretroviral treatment to 2,500 HIV+ survivors of the genocide, and their dependents, in Rwanda. The project has been a remarkable success, as reported by DFID itself.

Funding for that project is due to end on March 31st, which will have a potentially cataclysmic effect for survivors.

Already, the three partners have had to give notice to their staff of impending termination of employment. The three clinics will be compelled to scale back their delivery of frontline services: medical services, social services, trauma counselling and income generating activities.

This will result in much reduced, and lower quality, care for survivors, and will be a significant setback to helping them and their dependents out of poverty.

A grant proposal  has been submitted to DFID requesting an additional one year of funding, to give the partners time to source additional funding to ensure that survivors can receive the care and treatment vital for their continued well-being.

To learn more about the project, and to give your support, please watch the short film on the DFID website and post a comment there.

Thank you.

Established in 1995 by a survivor, Jean Gakwandi, SURF has supported its work which has included the construction of a now successful guest house (a great place to stay if you are looking for a quiet place in Kigali), as well as the establishment of a health clinic through a Care and Treatment Project for HIV+ women survivors funded by the Department for International Development.

The Independent on Sunday featured an article on their most recent project, the construction of a music studio through the support of a UK-based music producer, Dicken Marshall. The studio has already been put to good use, for the recording of a new album by the Solace Gospel Choir, Songs of Solace.

Through the support of Network 4 Africa, there is also now a thriving Learning Centre which, connected to the studio, offers music lessons.

Solace Ministries is a great example of how with an initial investment, an organisation can over time generate its own revenue which will ultimately help it to sustainability. Another example is AVEGA Eastern Region, which runs a successful conference and banqueting centre in Rwamagana.

That is the end to which SURF is working towards, to enable such partners to be self-sufficient. To hear of their success, is music to my ears!

Somewhat then against the grain, SURF has recently begun to offer donors the opportunity to support specific beneficiaries through our partner AVEGA Eastern Region (whose remarkable coordinator, Odette Kayirere, was interviewed this week on BBC Woman’s Hour). In an ongoing evaluation of our work by Comic Relief, we debated whether this model was feasible. As a small organisation with limited capacity, then our Monitoring and Evaluation Office in Rwanda is already overstretched. However, we believe that by factoring in an administration charge that covers our costs, as well as that of our partner to deliver the support, then it is a workable model.

Through the work of a volunteer of our partner Msaada, Julie Damant, we have about 20 case studies of individual survivors and households of survivors in need of support. We found the first sponsor last month for Niwemutoni, who is in fact a second generation survivor, and we are now working to try find sponsors for an array of other survivors in need.

If you can help, then please do contact SURF and we can provide the details of a beneficiary in need of sponsorship and the exact cost of providing that, and then ensure that the funding is provided direct to the beneficiary through AVEGA. You will then receive a progress report, and we hope in time that once the pressing needs of the survivor are met we can then transfer your support on to another beneficiary – and ensure that your gift continues to keep on giving support to survivors.

Personally, I am big fan of the organisation having bought Kiva gift certificates as presents for many of my friends. However, if you are looking for complementary ways of giving, then please do consider us.

SURF connecting donors-to-survivors.

SURF is fortunate to receive funding from a number of sources to help support the income generating activities of our partners, such as AVEGA. In particular, funding from the Department for International Development, as well as from the Good Gifts catalogue, enables survivors to form into cooperatives to undertake projects that range from animal husbandry to handicrafts (such as cardmaking, as demonstrated below).

There are a number of goods that the survivors produce that have the potential to generate income. SURF can assist in the process, by bringing products to a wider market. As such, we have established a dedicated page on our website to virtually display and electronically retail a selection of handmade goods produced by survivors.

In the first instance, we are launching the initiative with two ranges of products: Jewellery and Greeting Cards. There is further information on each range now available online. However, if you are passing through West London and would like to buy any of the products in person then please do come in to visit us at 10 Rickett Street, London SW6 1RU.

As Christmas approaches, we hope that you will consider these the perfect gifts!