A time for renewal: a lessons-learned review on the role of CISM in caring for missionaries after the Rwandan genocide.
In 1994 more than 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide. Seventh Day Adventist missionaries were forced to evacuate the country under conditions of extraordinary stress and personal threat. Their Church was faced with the necessity of rapidly developing a spectrum of support services to assist the distressed missionaries and their family members in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe. Individual missionaries, and sometimes their entire family units, had witnessed horrific atrocities perpetrated against members of their congregations and the general public. In some situations of their own church members actively participated in the murders. Church leaders combined their efforts with the resources of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation to provide immediate, multifaceted support services to the missionaries and their families. This article briefly describes the breadth and depth of the specific Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) program that was developed and provided to Rwandan Seventh Day Adventist missionaries in April of 1994. The results of a brief post-support evaluation survey are presented.
Feldbush
Martin W
MW
Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, Tucson, AZ, USA. mmfeld18@msn.com
Mitchell
Jeffrey T
JT
D003419:Crisis Intervention / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D066189:Missionaries; D008921:Religious Missions / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012432:Rwanda; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000628:therapy*