APPROCHES

The great importance of the work of AMI lies in their innovative and exemplary approach to reach a sustainable result. They start with analyzing the context and they adapt their approaches to the context issues accordingly. The AMI’s strategy for social change goes from individuals to collectivities. Individuals are strengthened in personal and social transformation capacities. The main objective here being to help them develop fearlessness (psychological stability), resilience and non-exclusion capacities through theory and practical exercises conceived and tested for this effect. The three are the aspects of the real inner power which is indispensable for a peace actor called to operate in a difficult context like the one prevailing in Rwanda and in the Region. Once the individuals are trained and operationalized, they form groups which have three functions: to help members to support each other, to help community members to resolve their problems in a non-violent way and to raise imitators by creating and coaching new groups. All groups form a network which becomes a critical mass necessary for social change. Beside this original approach, AMI also uses other complementary methodological approaches to solve specific problems related to the tragic Rwandan history. Trauma healing is very important for the sustainability and long-term achievement of their work. Individuals are helped to recover from their traumatic situation using individual approaches to trauma healing, whereas social relations are healed using social therapy. Indeed, the use of social therapy developed by Charles Rojzman Institute facilitates reconciliation between conflicting groups (genocide survivors and genocide perpetrators); negotiation and mediation techniques are used for the resolution of gacaca-related conflicts and community dialogues are used to enhance citizen participation in the life of the “city” for all kinds of issues, such as budgets, development plans, social interactions and educative initiatives. This approach allows the local population to take charge of their own development. The long-term solution is based on a dynamic interaction between the beneficiaries. To empower citizens for participation, AMI uses the methodology CRACS, which is based on five core issues: the citizen, responsibility, active participation, critical attitude and solidarity. Here the point is to reinforce citizen awareness, citizen autonomy and responsibility, citizen active participation, citizen critical thinking and solidarity. AMI uses also four “citizen participation skills” (intelligences citoyennes): skills to express one’s ideas, skills to analyze the context and to identify core problems together with their root-causes, skills to generate alternative solutions, skills to advocate for the alternative solutions. These skills are used in the process of IMIHIGO or performance contracts. AMI also uses “community score card” to help rights holders” (citizens) to hold accountable duty bearers (local authorities) who are obliged to answer fundamental questions from the people. These skills are based on the principles of the book “Les Intelligences Citoyennes” by the Belgian author Majo Hansotte. AMI adapted them to the context of Rwanda and of the Great Lakes Region,