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The chosen target group age range of this intervention is aimed at from 12 – 13 years old. This is often the age when many Rwandan children are just about to leave primary school and enter lower secondary school. At this age skills can be taught through participatory arts, before these young people leave education or find jobs, which can be transferred later in life.

Additionally, it is an appropriate age to discuss sensitive topics such as the genocide. This is the generation born after the genocide therefore there is the opportunity to education those who did not live through it. These young people will have the opportunity to form their own opinions free of their parent’s influence (those who lived through the genocide). This will encourage the exchange of ideas through the arts project with the generation who did live through the genocide as a form of reconciliation. With over 45% of Rwanda’s population being under 18 years old (Unicef, 2020), the opportunity to engage with young people through an arts project will help target the future generation in supporting social justice.

There is continued marginalisation of young Hutu men and women. For young people to be recognised as adults in Africa they need to attain social and economic status. Achieving this requirement involves reaching financial independence, income or employment and starting a family in males (Hilker, 2014). For females, gaining social acceptance as an adult is achieved by marrying by the age of 24 or 25 years old or otherwise face a life as a social outlier. As Sommers (2012) states “You can’t become a man without building a house. To be a woman, you have to marry". In Rwandan adulthood, housing is viewed as a cultural gateway with a particular focus on roofing. A lack of roofing can be associated with illegitimate children, informal marriages, crime, prostitution or becoming an “inzererezi” (wanderer or social outcast) (Murphy, 2017). Through creating social justice within our intervention, we want to chance the precedent that's been set for previous generations.

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Our intervention will entail a short film of a conversation between  young Tutsi and Hutu men and women, who were impacted by the genocide, to depict the impact that it has had on them. This will allow them to openly discuss their experiences and educate today's generation.

The film will be used to not only educate the people of Rwanda but to educate other communities to raise awareness.

After this workshop, the young people will also create a mural in their school or in the community with the information they have learnt to hopefully build bridges, act as a reminder of unity and to achieve a  sense of equality within the community.

The purpose of using a mural as an participatory arts intervention is because they bring vibrancy to urban areas and will help try and create a sense of togetherness. They are perceived to serve a diverse motive which involves 'encouragement of a sense of place and ownership, cultural expression and education'. Moreover, murals are also viewed as being effective enough to act as a catalyst for social or political change by 'creating public awareness and asserting a communities identity.' (Marschall, 1999)

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The forefront of the intervention is that Rwanda has a divided society because of the genocide in 1994 (Hilker, 2014).

Due to this, young people's lives continue to be shaped and influenced by three specific intersections of ethnicity, gender and age that resonate with the past. These factors are causing inequality, injustice and a divided society. (Hilker, 2014)

However, what we want to try and achieve is reconciliation, but this can cause complications. Reconciliation is a morally imposed term which can side line actual problems within Rwanda today.

Societies that have been affected by large-scale violence need to own the reconciliation process; it is not something that can be imposed from outside or from the top down (Clark, 2010). We do not want to create artificial unity.

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The context when identifying the correct participatory arts method is important. Levels of inequality are high and some have found rural poverty to be increasing and the Rwandan political system shows little sign of transformation to more inclusive governance (Dawson, 2018).

Even though the government have tried to eliminate discrimination, many young people still feel the Tutsi still held the most power and access to influential political posts and state sector jobs. The relationship between both ethnic groups within young people seem harmonious. However, there seems a constant need desire to know the ethnic identity from those around them (McLean Hilker, 2009)

Ethno-gendered stereotypes still exist in contemporary Rwanda. Tutsi women hold a superior title with regards to beauty and the dominant ideals of what it is to be beautiful sits in the stereotypes of the appearances of Tutsis (McLean Hilker, 2014)

Hutus also experience discrimination by being excluded through poor education opportunities, under employment and lack of decision-making power which stalls their transition to adulthood (Hilker, 2014). Young people having trouble in attaining these requirements results in waithood, a period of suspension between childhood and adulthood (Honwana, 2013).

Young people suffer from multiple forms of social exclusion. The transition into adulthood is made difficult due to 'under employment, poor educational opportunities and a lack of decision making. (Hilker, 2014)

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Since the genocide, young people's lives continued to be shaped by 3 specific interactions of ethnicity, gender and age that resonate with the past (Hilker, 2014).

As the genocide is still a raw factor within society, we need to appreciate that not all young people will want to reconcile due to their own personal reasons on how it affected them specifically. It isn't guaranteed to resonate with our beneficiaries, however, if it creates a positive impact and engages with at least some of young people we are targeting, then that is an at least something than not doing anything anything about it at all.

Like most conflicts, at the core of it there is still a shared humanity that goes unrecognised, as Tutsis and Hutus share the same religion, language, and culture, so engaging in that reconciliation that existed before the genocide (Rothbart and Bartlett, 2008).

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Ideally, the long term outcomes we hope to achieve are reconciliation, equality, a sense of community and educational development. We hope the young people will actively try to prevent social division and discrimination and be at peace with each other.

The use of participation for these young adults is to increase their agency, which has become central to many organisations who work alongside children. Based on this situation, agency is described as '‘capacities, competencies and activities through which they navigate the contexts and positions of their lifeworlds fulfilling many economic, social and cultural expectations, while simultaneously charting individual/collective choices and possibilities for their daily and future lives’' (Robson et al, 2007).

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We hope our intervention will develop transferable skills for the young people to be able to use later on in life such as leadership, and confidence. Particularly through creating a mural, it opens up potential new avenues for the children and they could develop an interest for art, for potential career option in the future, creating transferable skills into their adult lives to limit discrimination on job opportunities dependent on ethnicity..

It may be beneficial giving the beneficiaries to share their stories and views and feel, so they feel  as if they are being listened to which prevents further isolation.

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Clark, J. N., 2010. National unity and reconciliation in Rwanda: A flawed approach? Journal of Contemporary African Studies [online], 28 (2), 137-154

Dawson, N. M., 2018. Leaving no-one behind? Social inequalities and contrasting development impacts in rural Rwanda. Development Studies Research [online], 5 (1), 1-14.

Eastmond, M., 2010. Introduction: Reconciliation, reconstruction, and everyday life in war-torn societies. Focaal - Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology [online], 57, 3-16.

Honwana, A., 2013. Youth, Waithood, And Protest Movements In Africa. [online] African Arguments. Available from: https://africanarguments.org/2013/08/12/youth-waithood-and-protest-movements-in-africa-by-alcinda-honwana/ [Accessed 8 November 2020].

Marschall, S., 1999. A critical investigation into the impact of community mural art. Transformation [online], 40.

McLean Hilker, L. C., 2009. Everyday ethnicities: Identity and reconciliation among Rwandan youth, Journal of Genocide Research [online], 11 (1), 81-100.

McLean Hilker, L. C., 2014. Navigating adolescence and young adulthood in Rwanda during and after genocide: intersections of ethnicity, gender and age. Children's Geographies [online], 12 (3), 354-368.

Murphy, S., 2017. What Is Waithood? African Youth, Unemployment and Transitions Into Adulthood [online] Youth Think. Available from: https://youththink.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/neoliberalism-african-youth-and-the-notion-of-waithood/ [Accessed 8 November 2020].

Pells, K., 2012. ‘Rights are everything we don't have’: clashing
conceptions of vulnerability and agency in the daily lives of Rwandan children and youth.
Children's Geographies [online], 10 (4), 427-440.

Robson, E., Bell, S. and Klocker, N., 2007. Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people. In R. Panelli, S. Punch & E. Robson (Eds.), Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: young rural lives [online]. Routledge.

Rothbart, D. and Bartlett, T., 2008. Rwandan radio broadcasts and Hutu/Tutsi positioning. In Global conflict resolution through positioning analysis [online]. New York: Springer.

Sommers, M., 2012. Stuck: Rwandan Youth And The Struggle For Adulthood (Studies In Security And International Affairs) [online]. Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

UNICEF, 2020. Situation of Children In Rwanda [online]. UNICEF. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/rwanda/situation-children-rwanda [Accessed 8 November 2020].

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The overall objective for this intervention is to essentially educate the young people on the genocide, but with a positive outlook,. Alongside this, we hope that with creating a mural we remind them that they are one society and to not let past ethnic conflicts define them.

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A rapport is created between the children who are involved in the project and the adults who went through the genocide.

Relationships are able to be formed in many different ways in this programme; these relationships include, between participants and the adults, participants themselves and the wider community who will help to support this project. (Pells, 2012)

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1) Local charity organisations

such as 'Save the Children' and 'CARE' are both community based programmes who aim to support children in Rwanda. 'Save the Children' would be ideal  to collaborate with for our projects as their main aim is 'strengthen existing, community-based child protection systems', which are similar initiatives for our
intervention (Pells, 2012).

2) The Rwandan Government since the genocide has encouraged reconciliation and the elimination of ethnicity a central policy (Eastmond, 2010). The government have claimed that they are insistent on dealing with the multiple disadvantages that the children of Rwanda face on a daily basis. Therefore, our intervention should appeal to them and enhance it by giving it some validation and making it known to communities in Rwanda (Pells, 2012). Additionally, they have also backed new initiatives that focuses on adolescent girls such as Girl Hub. These initiatives promote empowerment amongst girls. One of their main initiative is the publication of 'Ni Nyampinga' magazine, which has information about health, education and relationships and also features stories of ‘successful’ young Rwandan women working in jobs traditionally undertaken by men. such as electricians, shoemakers, moto-taxi drivers to in defy traditional social norms and showing them they can do whatever they want to with their lives.