Messages of Hope & Support
Messages of Hope and Messages of Support are examples of applied interventions based on theory and research in social psychology.
Messages of Hope commenced in 2009 and is an intercultural initiative intended to promote reconciliation and wellbeing in Rwanda by sharing positive stories of hope and recovery in the form of video messages recorded by everyday Rwandan genocide survivors. Prompted by the observation that there were few opportunities for Rwandans to share positive stories of survival and healing, the project was jointly undertaken by partners in Rwanda and Australia, and supported by Rwandan and international organisations.
Messages of Support commenced in 2012. Funded by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, the project builds on work undertaken in Messages of Hope by investigating benefits to people who support vulnerable, traumatised, or marginalised others.
The Messages of Hope and Messages of Support projects were initiated at Murdoch University and are currently administered by researchers at Western Sydney University. Both projects are still active, with researchers and students at Western Sydney University continuing to record messages and investigate effects.
Background: Messages of Hope[edit]
The Messages of Hope project is based on work in social psychology connecting hopefulness, well-being, and social support for vulnerable people.[1][2]. Genocide survivors in Rwanda recorded brief (e.g., 2-3 minute) audiovideo messages telling the story of their personal recovery after the genocide, and relaying their hopeful feelings for their own and their country's future. A selection of messages were televised nationally in Rwanda and presented on large screen in the National Stadium in Kigali during the 17th commemoration of the genocide in 2011, and a short documentary about the project also screened during those commemorations.
The rationale behind the project is:
- to facilitate personal wellbeing by showing survivors the possibility for renewal and a positive future via the positive stories of others;
- to facilitate community cohesion and social wellbeing by encouraging the sharing of positive stories as beacons of hope for the wider community;
- to promote a broader view of Rwanda as a place where compellingly positive expressions of resilience can be found, and not as just a country where genocide occurred.
Messages of Hope is designed to complement the range of existing strategies and organisations in Rwanda and internationally[3] that already support survivors. Key considerations of the project are to focus on stories of recovery and so avoid retraumatising survivors, and to be culturally sanctioned and relevant for Rwandan survivors. The project avoids strategies based on forgiveness, guilt, and apology to focus on future-oriented outcomes like hope, healing, and growth.
Background: Messages of Support[edit]
Messages of Support is based on research linking community engagement, social support, activism, and personal and social wellbeing[4][5]. Young Australians view video messages created by Rwandan survivors for the Messages of Hope project, and then create their own brief video messages supporting survivors. Support messages are available online, and a selection were shown to survivors in Rwanda to elicit survivor feedback about the value and effectiveness of supportive messages.
The rationale behind the project is that creating supportive messages may:
- encourage supporters to engage in other positive and relevant activism (e.g., promoting violence prevention solutions);
- increase both personal and social wellbeing among supporters and genocide survivors;
- promote greater community engagement and global citizenship.
[edit]
Message creation by everyday survivors and supporters is a central feature of both the Messages of Hope and Messages of Support projects. The two projects provide a way for people who might otherwise be relatively anonymous to publicly express their hope and support in a public forum alongside other similar peer group survivors and supporters. The projects are also designed to encourage further efforts to develop positive change for Rwandan survivors.
As well as a focus on Rwandan survivors, the techniques and protocols developed for creation, sharing, and researching effects of positive and supportive messages will be developed into a framework that can be applied across other contexts of vulnerability, and where people who experience disadvantage in one domain can offer messages of support to other vulnerable groups[6]. For example - refugees might record and share messages about their hopes for the future, and homeless people might record and share supportive messages in return. One key idea behind this framework is to empower people who traditionally receive assistance to transform from being passive recipients of support to active providers of support.
Project challenges[edit]
Ethical considerations[edit]
Before the Messages of Hope project could proceed, formal ethical approval was secured from the Human Research Ethics Committee at Murdoch University[7]. Prior to starting the research, protocols and procedures were discussed and agreed upon by researchers at Murdoch University and project partners in Rwanda who had experience and expertise supporting Rwandan survivors. A clinical psychologist with specific expertise working with Rwandan survivors and survivors of other conflicts was a key member of the research team and monitored and advised on the ongoing administration of the initiative.
Separate ethical approval was also secured from Murdoch University for the Messages of Support project. Hopeful messages created by Rwandan survivors do include some information about their experiences during the genocide, however, they emphasise hope and a future focus. Nevertheless, one important issue was the potential for people creating supportive messages to experience negative psychological effects resulting from exposure to material about the genocide. Researchers reviewed messages created by Rwandan survivors before sharing with potential supporters. All participants were fully informed about the project and consented before taking part and, parental/guardian consent was also obtained for all participants under 16 years old. Participants also had the opportunity to withdraw from the project at any time and for any reason, and all participants were fully debriefed individually and in small groups after taking part.
Logistical challenges[edit]
Sharing messages is a key part of the reasoning behind both projects. Hopeful and supportive messages are available online, however, although costs associated with creating and online sharing are comparatively small, financial and technical resources and availability are relatively limited in Rwanda which factors significantly into how creation and sharing can occur.
Participant safety[edit]
Rwandan is still a post-conflict society with some ongoing political violence and so there is potential for survivors who share positive messages to experience abuse from others who disagree with reconciliation[8][9]. While the actual risks may be low, this may still pose a dilemma for survivors who are considering creating and sharing messages of hope.
Political challenges[edit]
The Messages of Hope project was developed with the support of Rwandan government agencies and so is officially sanctioned by the Rwandan government. However, some groups and communities have negative perceptions and experiences of government interventions[10]. Therefore, Rwandans' attitudes towards government agencies, policies and actions may affect participation in and reception of the project.
Project outputs[edit]
Details of both projects have been reported in academic articles, book chapters, and project reports.
"Messages of Hope: Using Positive Stories of Survival to Assist Recovery in Rwanda"[6] describes the background, procedures, findings, and future plans for the interventions including how the original collaboration between Rwandan and Australian partners was conceived, details of their theoretical underpinnings, procedures used, and preliminary conclusions.
"Opinion-based groups and the Restoration of Civil Society"[11] discusses in more depth how the social psychological theory of opinion-based groups explains and guides the practical application of the interventions, and explores their broader relevance to collective engagement and participation in civic society. "We don't need no education: Civic identity and civic participation in formal and informal education contexts"[12] further explains the interventions' potential role and effects as educative tools to foster social identity and civic engagement.
The rationale, methods and procedures, results, and implications of the initiatives are also presented in two reports. "Messages of Support: Pilot Study Report"[13] details the original study that developed, tested, and refined the idea of using supportive messages to facilitate engagement and wellbeing. "Messages of support: helping others who have survived traumatic experiences can be good for you"[14] reports a second phase of the initiative that involved a larger number of participants creating supportive messages and evaluation of supportive messages by genocide survivors in Rwanda.
Project partners[edit]
Professor Craig McGarty, Associate Professor Emma Thomas, Dr Girish Lala, Dr Angela Ebert, Associate Professor Mick Broderick, Associate Professor Martin Mhando, Yves Kamuronsi, Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Ibuka, National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, Rwandan Ministry for Sports and Culture, Aegis Trust.
References[edit]
- ↑ Hobfoll, S.E.; Watson, P.; Bell, C.C.; Bryant, R.A.; Brymer, M.J.; Friedman, M.J.; ...; Ursano, R.J. (2007). "Five essential elements of immediate and mid–term mass trauma intervention: Empirical evidence". Psychiatry. 70 (4): 283–315. doi:10.1521/psyc.2007.70.4.283.
- ↑ Gee, A.; Khalaf, A.; McGarty, C. (2007). "Using group-based interaction to change stereotypes about people with mental disorders". Australian Psychologist. 42 (2): 98–105. doi:10.1080/00050060701280581.
- ↑ "Radio La Benevolencija: La Benevolencija in Rwanda". www.labenevolencija.org.
- ↑ Klar, M.; Kasser, T. (2009). "Some Benefits of Being an Activist: Measuring Activism and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being". Political Psychology. 30 (5): 755–777. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00724.x.
- ↑ Thomas, E. F.; McGarty, C.; Lala, G.; Stuart, A.; Hall, L. J.; Goddard, A. (2015). "Whatever happened to Kony2012? Understanding a global Internet phenomenon as an emergent social identity". European Journal of Social Psychology. 45 (3): 356–367. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2094.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lala, G.; McGarty, C.; Thomas, E. F.; Ebert, A.; Broderick, M.; Mhando, M.; Kamuronsi, Y. (2014). "Messages of Hope: Using Positive Stories of Survival to Assist Recovery in Rwanda". Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 2 (1): 450–468. doi:10.5964/jspp.v2i1.290.
- ↑ "Human Research Ethics Committee | Murdoch University". our.murdoch.edu.au.
- ↑ Brounéus, Karen (2008). "Truth-Telling as Talking Cure? Insecurity and Retraumatization in the Rwandan Gacaca Courts". Security Dialogue. 39 (1): 55–76. doi:10.1177/0967010607086823. ISSN 0967-0106.
- ↑ Rettig, M. (2011). "The Sovu Trials: The impact of genocide justice on one community". In Straus, S; Waldorf, L. Remaking Rwanda: State building and human rights after mass violence. The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 194–209. Search this book on
- ↑ Straus, S.; Waldorf, L. (2011). Remaking Rwanda: State building and human rights after mass violence. The University of Wisconsin Press. Search this book on
- ↑ McGarty, C.; Lala, G.; Thomas, E.F. (2012). "Opinion-based groups and the Restoration of Civil Society". In Jonas, K.J.; Morton, T.A. Restoring Civil Societies: The Psychology of Intervention and Engagement Following Crisis. Wiley-Blackwell. Search this book on
- ↑ Thomas, E.F.; McGarty, C.; Stuart, A.; Lala, G.; Pedersen, A. (2016). "We don't need no education: Civic identity and civic participation in formal and informal education contexts". In Mavor, K.I.; Platow, M.; Bizumic, B. The Self, Social Identity and Education. Psychology Press. Search this book on
- ↑ Lala, G.; McGarty, C.; Thomas, E.F.; Broderick, M.; Ebert, A.; Mhando, M. (2015). Messages of Support: Pilot Study Report. Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. Search this book on
- ↑ Thomas, E.F; McGarty, C.; Lala, G. (2016). Messages of support: helping others who have survived traumatic experiences can be good for you (PDF). Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. Search this book on
External links[edit]
- Messages of Hope & Support project website
- 100 Message of Hope youtube channel
- Murdoch University Social and Political Psychology Research Unit youtube channel
- Rwanda: Hope For the Future vimeo video
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