Student Trauma First Aid Trainings held

Trauma First Aid Trainings April 24 – May 22, 2018  PIASS, Huye
organized by PIASS Peace Club, in collaboration with CRASPD

In light of experiences from past events of Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda where it was challenging to see persons in emotional crisis, the Peace Club of PIASS, in collaboration with CRASPD, had held a Trauma First Aid Training for members of the Peace Club and students who are members of other students’ clubs ahead of the 2017 Commemoration period.

In the same perspective, the PIASS Peace Club in collaboration with CRASPD and with support from GIZ Civil Peace Service, in April and May 2018 organized a 4 day training of a second group of student Trauma first aiders, a 2 day refresher training for additional skills with the 2017 group and a follow-up and team building day for both groups together, ahead of the 2018 commemoration period.

The trainings introduced students from different faculties to the concepts of trauma and mental health support as well as different techniques to help persons in emotional crises.  The trainers, two experienced trauma counselors and psychosocial trainers, taught a variety of techniques for relaxation and grounding and provided multiple opportunities for practicing those techniques, in build participants’ capacities to intervene when seeing persons in emotional crisis, e.g. during Commemoration events for the Genocide against the Tutsi, and at the same time to observe the necessary self-care to keep themselves safe and able to help.

In a follow up day, the group who had been trained in 2017 and attended the 2018 refresher training and the group trained in 2018, came together to exchange their experiences when applying what they had learnt, to improve their skills of active listening and of using relaxation techniques and to prepare for their contribution as “Mental Health Advisors” during the event for the Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi at PIASS on the weekend May 26-27, 2018.