Media to fight against manipulation of identities in the Great Lakes region

Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo

Shedding LIGHT on Unconscious Bias and Invisible Racism

France, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands

Countering extremism through an online educational game

The plot of Musekeweya (“New Dawn” in Kinyarwanda) is based on a setting easily recognizable for most Rwandans: two villages, Bumanzi and Muhumuro, situated on opposing hills with a marsh land in between.

The villages lived through years of land disputes, which evolved into a bigger conflict as characters started underscoring the different ethnic identities of the communities. Courageous active bystanders stood up against this manipulation and violence and made their fellow inhabitants aware of the manipulation and the actual causes of the conflicts. The two communities therefore live together peacefully again. However, they are now faced with an influx of refugees from neighboring countries, which leads to stereotyping, prejudices and extreme dehumanization about each other. All episodes are uploaded to the Musekeweya-website: http://www.musekeweya.org/

Rwanda

The Burundian radio drama “Murikira Ukuri”, Kirundi for “shedding light on truth” focuses on the different elements that lead to group violence.

In the fictional village of Rusangi, two different ethnic groups coexist, Baseruko from the East, and Barengero from the West. It is said that the Baseruko have left the barren hills in the East long ago, to seek fertile farming land in the West, what caused land shortage bringing about conflict between the two groups. Baseruko were treated as invaders by the Barengero who originally lived there. The conflict will last for decades causing a lot of damage.

Some decades later, an unexpected discovery pushes a group of young people from both sides to question everything they had been told about the past of their village. Via social media, they launch a campaign called “Murika” (Shed light) to claim for truth. They want to learn from the past in order to prepare for a better future. But, will they succeed their mission while people involved in past atrocities see the campaign as a threat to them?

Burundi

This project seeks to support the reintegration process of ex-prisoners into society and to mitigate the negative impacts of intergenerational legacies of the 1994 genocide, including the transmission of trauma, violence and divisionism.

The project is jointly carried out with CBS Rwanda, a community-based organization that seeks to bring (descendants of) genocide survivors and perpetrators closer together through community-based sociotherapy. Radio La Benevolencija on the other hand aims to increase understanding among the general population of challenges and issues related to ex-prisoner reintegration and intergenerational trauma, by incorporating these themes into the storylines of its national radio drama Musekeweya.

Rwanda

COMMIT is a European Campaign with social media posts coming from 4 NGO’s in Austria, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands. It aims to prevent & dissuade vulnerable young people (13 – 35) from extremism, radicalism & terrorism.

This project seeks to interest the young generations in Burundi’s history, and to make them critically reflect on the different existing versions of it.

Rather than re-narrating the conflict related issues of the past 50 years, online and offline media partners encourage the youth to actively participate in discussions and debates and to reinterpret the polarised history of the country. This project runs parallel with the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s mission to establish the truth on what happened during the different conflicts in the past.

Burundi

The Nyubahiriza project aims to contribute to a reduction of violence, instability and forced migration that Burundians have been experiencing for decades and continue to suffer from today.

The project is implemented by a consortium of Oxfam Novib, CARE and Impunity Watch. Benevolencija has been subcontracted under this programme to contribute especially towards increased resilience against political and identity-based manipulation towards recruitment into armed groups or other violent behaviour, detecting and countering hate speech, and exposing youth to alternative role models.

Burundi

Tajsa is a web-based collection of video/audio podcasts and educational resources about the causes and the consequences of the Genocide of the Roma during WWII, the Roma identity building and the self-empowerment of the Roma communities around Europe.

Recognizing the need to support the independence and professionalism of the media apparatus in Burundi under an increasingly repressive regime, the Media Support Project provides editorial and structural support to the few remaining independent media houses in Burundi.

The overall objective of the project is to enable the production of pluralistic information which contributes to reduced social, political and ethnic polarisation and builds resilience in Burundian citizens against misinformation, manipulation and incitement.

Burundi

Led by Aegis Trust, the ESPR project focuses on training teachers to deliver the cross-cutting Peace and Values education curriculum in Rwandan schools.

The goal of the project is to strengthen Rwanda’s capacity to promote social cohesion, positive values, empathy, critical thinking and action in order to build a more peaceful society. Benevolencija’s contribution to this project comprises the amplification of peace messages and the continuum of violence, through the production and broadcast of Musekeweya and the organisation of grasssroots activities.

Rwanda