PURCHASE BOOKS

The Lances Were Looking Down: One Woman's Path through the Rwandan Genocide to Life in the States [Paperback] [Hardcover]

The night of April 6, 1994, in Rwanda was like many others for Hadidja Nyiransekuye and her family. Yet the next morning when they awakened, turned on Radio Rwanda, and heard nothing but dead air, Hadidja's husband had a premonition--something was wrong. It turns out, he was right. Overnight, the Rwandan President had died in a plane crash, Prime Minister Agathe had been shot, and the killing of innocent people had already begun.

In her memoir, The Lances Were Looking Down, Hadidja shares her incredible journey before, during, and after the one hundreds days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Nothing had prepared Hadidja, her family, and other Rwandans for the magnitude of the carnage and the barbarism that followed the death of the president. When all was said and done, more than eight hundred thousand people would lie dead in the streets; their country would never be the same.

As Hadidja leads others through the heartbreaking, shocking, and disturbing events that caused the self-destruction of a beautiful country and its people, she also shares her hopes and fears for her fellow Rwandans, proving that no matter what the tragedy, an unyielding love for family, friends, and country will always triumph over evil.

At the Receiving End:  A Phenomenological Study of Great Lakes Region African Women as Recipients of Refugee Services in the United States

Sub-Saharan African refugee women have become a significant group in Western countries over the past 20 years. Their plights and successes have been reported by service providers. This study intended to uncover the meaning refugee women from the Great Lakes region of Africa attribute to being recipients of services during the first 4 months of their resettlement in the United States. Social constructivism was used as the theoretical framework for understanding the refugee women's experience. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach.

Findings revealed the impact of pre-resettlement experiences on the meaning refugee women give to the phenomenon under study. Underlying the major themes were two threads: the fear of annihilation and the need for self-preservation. The key constructs of powerlessness and cultural differences were shown to have an impact on the experience of receiving services in final resettlement. Practitioners, educators and policy makers will appreciate the importance of understanding the refugee women's experience of receiving services in order to develop and provide culturally responsive refugee services.