The presentation shares the experience of La Benevolencija, a non-governmental organisation based in Holland, that has launched a communications project in Rwanda based upon the theories of psychologists Prof. Ervin Staub and Dr. Laurie Pearlman. The project aims to develop understanding of the roots of group violence in the service of prevention, trauma healing and reconciliation. It aims to contribute to knowledge and attitude change through two main activities: radio broadcasting in the local language Kinyarwanda, and participatory communications activities.

According to the presenter, audience research and audience participation in message design were considered crucial in order to develop realistic and relevant radio programmes which were resonant with populations who do not all share a common agreement on the causes and impact of genocide and who often have very diverse attitudes towards issues such as reconciliation. Research was carried out with 13 listener groups, which were established in each province of the country. The presentation focused on two main phases of listener group research: KAP (knowledge, attitude and practise) research and a pre-test of the radio programmes.

The listener group design included:

The presentation goes on to present the finding of the research related to trauma, perceived causes of the genocide, and feeling about reconciliation, and how these have been incorpoarated into the radio programmes, especially the drama.

The following conclusions are presented:

To view a 14-page summary of the presentation, click here.