Rwanda / Soap
Radio drama
Musekeweya ("New Dawn"): Radio Benevolencija has developed a fictional story for radio called Musekeweya , which follows the lives of various characters and teaches listeners to prevent violence, start the process of reconciliation and help their traumatized neighbors. Broadcasts started in June 2003 and are targeted to the general population in the country. In Rwanda , close to 90% of the country's radio audience listens to the program.
The plot centers around two villages, Bumanzi and Muhumuro, which have formed one administrative unit. The families from both communities also have small fields on their respective hills, but Bumanzi's land is more fertile than Muhumuro's. This has created animosity in the past, with the people of Muhumuro accusing Bumanzi of stealing their crops. Tensions are further heightened when a government representative comes along and gives a fertile field that the villages once shared to the people of Bumanzi. Tensions and resentment escalate into violence between the two villages, culminating in a crop raid, a subsequent attack on Bumanzi, a later counterattack on Muhumuro and the need to flee.
The soap shows how situations of fear and instability give rise to group formations. These in turn give rise to bad leaders who use tactics of hate to manipulate their citizenry into violence. After mutual violence shows the citizenry the futility of tactics of violence, "active bystanders," individuals who realize the importance of personal positive action, lead the two groups into a deeply engaging process of reconciliation. But renewed dangers, this time involving the society of their whole region, loom on the horizon. Having learned the nature of the dangerous processes that lead to violence, the people of Muhumoro and Bumanzi will together play a decisive role in averting it in the future.
Throughout this story, audiences also learn the symptoms and methods of treating the trauma that afflicts them. This enables individual listeners to learn to deal with the psychological repercussions of the harrowing experiences that they and their neighbors faced during the violence in their country.
Rwanda / Justice & youth campaigns
Justice forms a special focus of the Great Lakes Reconciliation Radio project in Rwanda . Throughout this country, more than 10,000 village tribunals operated by more than 100,000 lay judges are currently in full operation.
Rwanda / Grass roots
Radio Benevolencija is currently creating groups of local change agents, or "active bystanders," who meet regularly in groups spread all over the regions and settlements of Rwanda . Training and debate events are held on a monthly basis at central locations.
Rwanda / Factual & debate
Kuki ("Why?") : This is a radio magazine that focuses on direct factual information about incidences of mass violence and genocide in the world, and how individuals involved in that violence went through a psychological development similar to that which occurred in Rwanda.