With the USAID/DKU goal of increasing access to justice in Rwanda, one of planned intervention is conducting psycho-socio counseling and healing sessions for prisoners in need, focusing on recent detainees and others with different mental health problems in order to respond to one of the project objective namely Improving citizens’ knowledge of rights and expanded high-quality legal. As planned in the project implementation, DIDE psychologist will visit therapeutic groups monthly so that he/she assists them by discussing with group members, supporting those with particular cases and by facilitating a debriefing session with all peer educators. As new therapeutic groups have been created, and peer educators trained, it is planned that, in each correctional facility, 4 therapeutic groups (60 group memmbers) will be visited and will be closed by a debriefing session with peer educators.

To allow trainees being active, avoiding monotony during training and better making understand what they are learning, different approaches and methodologies have been used:
(1)Brainstorming: the right answers will come from many responses to a question given by the facilitator;
(2)Questions-answers: participants (trainees) respond to the question given by facilitator;
(3)Group working: participants work in small groups and then make presentation, thereafter, colleagues give complementary information. In this training, the exercise is about animation of therapeutic groups. In therapeutic groups, they shared in plenary what they did and others commented on the scenario to express what was well done and what needs to be improved and how to improve.
(4)Exposé: especially during debriefing, in clarifying information from participants.

Where it has been applicable, more than one approach/methodology has been used in a session for a better understanding.
As the purpose of the training is to bring peer educators being able conducting specific sharing groups, called “groups therapy”, most of the time is reserved to practices, and feedback provided after each session helped for improvement, and will serve in next sessions, while they will lead therapeutic groups. Participants did a pre-test in the beginning, and a post-test similar to the pre-test at the end of training. That allowed knowing the level of participants’ knowledge related to the training, and serves as an evaluation tool after the training by considering the evolution between the two tests. Participant did a pre-test at the beginning of the training and a post test at the end. Below is the summary of the results of those two tests. Note that the questionnaire is similar for the pre-test and the post-test.

Until now, the DIDE psychologist, in collaboration with the focal points of each of four correctional facility targeted by the project assisted prisoners in the creation of new therapeutic groups. Currently, groups are in the beginning, and planned sessions aimed to continue the support by some groups ( at least 4 groups in each CF). A debriefing session will be organized at the end to understand and assist peer educators in order to continue the good setting of therapeutic groups. Below is the planned dates for this activity and the number of people to be targeted in each CF.