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from Noozhawk.com - September 7, 2009
by Marni McGee

Artists Share Work in ‘Joyful Heart’ Benefit for Rwanda

Proceeds from this weekend's art show and silent auction will help provide shelter and food for orphans and refugees

Village women in Rwanda sing to express their faith and hope. Thousands of Rwandan women who had been raped and brutalized now suffer from AIDS, but the hardship has not quelled their spirit. (David Kain photo)

By Marni McGee | Published on 09.07.2009

This Friday and Saturday, The Frameworks & Caruso-Woods Contemporary Gallery will host an intriguing collection of paintings, ceramics, prints and jewelry donated by noted local artists such as R. Anthony Askew, Joan Dent, Pat Fulmer, David Holt, Anne Luther, Mooneen Mourad, Santi Visalli and Sara Wilcox.

In all, more than 60 works of art will be displayed in spacious rooms at 813 Anacapa St., in Santa Barbara’s historic Paseo at Anacapa and De la Guerra streets. The eclectic show will double as a silent auction to benefit Joyful Heart, a registered Rwandan charity that provides the basic necessities for shelter and survival to homeless orphans and refugee mothers not only in Rwanda but in the neighboring refugee camps of the Congo. All proceeds from the show will be wired directly to Joyful Heart in Kigali, Rwanda.

The collection may be seen, free of charge, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. A silent auction will be held throughout those hours.

Thanks to the generosity of Frameworks owners Christi Westerhouse and David Court, all of the proceeds will go to people in need in Africa. For the past nine years, the couple also has sponsored an exhibition titled “Buddha Abides,” with proceeds divided between the Tibetan Children’s Village and Domestic Violence Solutions for Santa Barbara County.

“We like to contribute to the causes we believe in,” Westerhouse said.

What can a few people do in the face of massive need? Quite a lot, it turns out. Witness the work of Betsy and David Kain, who first went to Rwanda in 2006. Betsy Kain, a retired, experienced clinical social worker, led a team of psychotherapists gathered to train Rwandans in counseling techniques so that they could minister to their countrymen in the aftermath of genocide and the tensions that persist in the region.

After her initial sojourn, she traveled three more times to Rwanda, where she continues to train, counsel and teach healing techniques for victims of trauma. The sphere of her work has grown in an ever-widening sphere, and now reaches out to Congolese refugee camps. In October, she will make her fifth visit, this time with muralist and designer Wilcox, who will offer her skills in communications and photography and her artistic talents in working with trauma victims. (The idea for the gallery show was, in fact, Wilcox’s brainchild.)

Kain has worked with Joyful Heart’s assistant administrator, Justin Bisengimana, for three years.

Despite the efforts of Joyful Heart, only a lucky few children receive food every third day. The rest of the time they must beg.

Despite the efforts of Joyful Heart, only a few lucky children receive food every third day. The rest of the time they must beg. (David Kain photo)

Despite Rwanda’s horrifying statistics of murder and rape and the relentless threat of starvation, the Kains were struck by the courage and resilience of Rwandan villagers. They came home, determined to help. Eloquent and persistent, the two have stirred and prodded fellow parishioners at All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, and have been rewarded with an outpouring of generosity and concern. Friends, neighbors and friends-of-friends have joined in, opening their hearts and their checkbooks.

To date, 18 Holstein cows and more than 1,600 goats have been purchased for needy Africans. The animals provide milk and milk products for the widows and orphans of Rwanda, for those living with AIDS, and sustenance for nursing mothers. These cows and goats provide nutrition, yes — but they also clear a path toward self-sustaining prosperity. In short, they represent hope. Whole villages have been transformed, and yet, there is so much more to be done. Thus, this week’s gallery show and silent auction.

Key facts about Rwanda include:

» Between April and July 1994 — 100 days — more than 1 million people were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide.

» Thousands of Rwandan women were raped and brutalized; many now suffer from AIDS as a result.

» Countless children were left orphaned, homeless and traumatized.

» Joyful Heart (Coeur Joyeaux) has received recognition and funding from the Dutch embassy, from churches in Ireland, as well as from many American supporters.

» Joyful Heart works not only to provide food, shelter and education for vulnerable villagers, but also attempts to bring reconciliation between opposing ethnic groups.

For more information, click here to visit Goats for Gifts or click here to visit Network4Africa.

To purchase a goat, write a check ($40 per goat) payable to Network4Africa with “Goats for Gifts” on the memo line and mail to Kent Englert Associates, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Santa Barbara 93108.

— Marni McGee is a local children’s book author.

Comments on Betsy Kain Presentation before Santa Barbara Cosmopolitan Club: May 7, 2009
by Hank Macchio

The Jesusita Fire had different plans for our last meeting than what COSMO had intended. Our featured speaker Dr. John Coie, who was to speak on “Hope for our Public Schools: the Waterford Initiative”, was evacuated because of the fire and had to cancel. Perhaps we can reschedule Dr. Coie for a future meeting. Attendance at the meeting was down by 50%, also due to the fire.

Undaunted by the lack of a speaker, the COSMO Program Committee pulled a rabbit out of the hat and was able to substitute a new speaker with less than 24 hours notice. Betsy Kain gave a remarkable and memorable presentation based on her recent work in Rwanda. Betsy was introduced by her husband Dave Kain.

Betsy Kain received her Master of Science in Social Work in 1966. She has had extensive experience in both individual and group psychotherapy, and her career included appointments at the University of Michigan Hospital, psychiatry unit, and the University of Pittsburgh Child Guidance Clinic. Later, she formed a private practice specializing in psychotherapy with adults and adolescents.

Betsy has volunteered in Rwanda to organize groups of professionals and to teach them methods to deal with the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome psychological aftermath of the genocide. The objectives of her efforts are not only to teach techniques to professionals to help themselves, but also to train the professionals to teach these methods to larger communities.

On her first trip, generously supported by the Tinsley Foundation, Betsy and other volunteers trained widows and the staff of Solace Ministries. On her second trip in September, 2007, the group worked with more than 90 orphan Heads of Households – i.e. orphans who are providing for, and raising, their younger siblings. The second trip also included training three groups of church leaders and the staff of Solace Ministries. Inspired by the many requests for more training, she has returned to Rwanda twice more and is planning a fifth trip soon.

Rwanda, about the size of Maryland, is 30 below the Equator in East Central Africa, is the most densely populated country in Africa with more than 10 million inhabitants, and is the “poorest country on Earth”. “Discovered” by white settlers in 1894, Rwanda-Urundi (later day Burundi), was claimed by Germany as part of German East Africa. After WW I, Belgium accepted the League of Nations Mandate of 1923 to govern Rwanda-Urundi along with the Congo. After World War II Rwanda-Urundi became a United Nations (UN) "trust territory" administered by Belgium.

An ethnically non-homogeneous country, Rwanda-Urundi, had a numerically smaller Tutsi tribe heavily favored by Belgium over the Hutu tribe. The Belgian government, with UN urging, decided in 1960 to divide Rwanda-Urundi into two separate countries, Rwanda and Burundi. Belgium granted Rwanda independence in 1962. For the next 30+ years, the region was rife with tribal-based civil war, multiple cross-border armed invasions involving Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Congo, and multiple incidences of genocide involving thousands of either Tutsis or Hutus.

Hate radio warned for years that the Tutsis were trying to re-enslave the Hutus, and when the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were jointly assassinated in April 1994, a wave of genocide with Hutus killing Tutsis erupted. The April 1994 genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutu resulted in almost 1M deaths in the next three months – over 9,000 Tutsi were killed DAILY. Equally horrifying is that almost 800,000 Hutus took part in the killings. Once order was restored, only those Hutus who killed more than 100 Tutsis were jailed. Today, Rwanda is essentially a single-party military-backed autocracy with the Tutsis in control.

With the extraordinary mega trauma of genocide in its recent history, Rwanda today is a nation of survivors who live and function in extreme poverty. Since the majority of the teachers and professionals before the genocide were Tutsi, the ranks of teachers, doctors and other professionals are virtually nonexistent today. In a country without a single ophthalmologist, for example, mental health social workers are a luxury that the country could not have hoped for prior to Betsy’s involvement. It is not an understatement to say that in Betsy’s case: “A single person has made a huge difference”.

Her efforts have not been limited to mental health training. Family, friends and her church in Santa Barbara have donated cash for Fresian (Holstein) cows and young goats. These animals have immediately helped to transform lives. Donated scarves and jewelry have lifted the spirits of women who possess virtually nothing. And, solar powered flashlights are enabling people to function better in rural communities without electricity.

There is some help for Rwanda from Belgium, the most recent colonial ruler of Rwanda, from other countries in the EU, and from USAID. However, Rwanda is off the radar screen of most of the world and easy to ignore. Betsy Kain, and others volunteers like her, have stepped in to help on a personal basis. Although volunteers live very simply once they are in Rwanda, airfares are expensive (A return fare from London to Kigali usually costs about $1,500).

Betsy closed her presentation by asking the COSMO members present to examine their hearts to see if they could somehow help Rwanda, this forgotten outpost of humanity.

from The Chautauquan Daily - July 19, 2008
by Alice R. O'Grady
Kain to tell of experiences among survivors in Rwanda

Betsy Kain at a Rwandan training session

At a training session in Rwanda, outside Kigali: from left, Doris, the interpreter; Kain; and two women who gave testimony of their experiences during the massacre.

Betsy Kain is a Chautauquan now living in Santa Barbara, Calif. She is returning to Chautauqua to give a PowerPoint presentation, “Rwanda Survivors Today,” in the chapel of Presbyterian House (in the lower level) at 7 p.m. Monday. Kain will tell about her three trips to Rwanda and her experiences there.
   Kain’s background is as a psychiatric social worker (now called clinical social worker), and she had been asked to advise Rebecca, a fellow church member in Santa Barbara, about counseling methods for Rebecca’s work with genocide survivors in Rwanda, Kain said. “Finally, Becky said to me, ‘I decided you should come to Rwanda to teach these things to the people.’ And I said, ‘OK.’”
   On her first trip, she worked in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. While her husband worked with Becky on plans for a school, Kain met with survivors of the 1994 genocide, mostly widows and offspring of the massacred Tutsis and moderate Hutus. “Most of them had their entire families wiped out,” Kain said. Women, Kain said, were often spared to be raped, and many were deliberately infected with HIV. “During those 100 days in 1994, more than a million Tutsis were murdered by Hutu tribesmen,” she said.
   The Kains’ base was Solace Ministries, a Rwanda organization formed soon after the massacre to help survivors.
Kain’s object was to train people who would train others to give counseling — largely listening skills — and share deep breathing and other relaxation techniques. These were designed to help survivors cope with the trauma. “Many of them still have nightmares about what they went through,” Kain said.
On her two successive visits, Kain traveled to Rwanda without her husband, and on her third visit, along with a translator and a driver, went out to the villages rather than work with urban survivors. This was at her request, as she knew that fewer services, if any, were available to the rural people, and that many of them had no means to reach the city. Not only did she reach more needy people this way, but they were honored, according to Rwandan custom, to have her visit them in their Kain to tell of experiences among survivors in Rwanda home. So her presence and her counseling meant more to them there.
   Kain met with groups of up to 90 people at a time in inner city slums and in the largest homes in the villages. Often the meetings were outdoors, under the trees.
   Her driver, she learned, was a musician who played a keyboard, so training sessions were interspersed with periods of singing and dancing. Kain said, “That was better than the serious, depressing stuff all the time.”
   The Kains found support in their Episcopal church in Santa Barbara, where members have donated funds to buy 14 cows. These were given to village women who agreed to share the milk and to give any calves to other village widows. “I was told there was loud clapping in church in Santa Barbara when it was announced that the first calf was born,” Kain said.
   Church members donated money for the cattle, veterinary bills and medications. The leftover money bought 63 goats. A team distributed them to residents of a village that had been wiped out, with only the very poor remaining. Each orphan or widow got a goat. At this, Kain said, the jubilant orphans sang, “Who would have thought we’d ever be alive,” and “Who would have thought there would ever be hope.”
   Income from these animals can pay school fees, buy medicines and be used for other transactions requiring cash.
   This effort has led to “Goats for Gifts,” which Kain and many friends now participate in. Enough money has been raised to buy 1,000 goats.
   Kain plans to return to Rwanda at the end of October, along with a farm manager.
   The Kains are Chautauquans who have been coming here for about 30 years. Six years ago, they moved from Pittsburgh to Santa Barbara, so they are here only a few weeks each summer. Readers familiar with the book Left to Tell may be interested to know that a friend of Kain is the sister of a woman who hid with Immaculée Ilibagiza, the author of that book.

The Santa Barbara Independent - Thursday, February 14, 2008
by Barney Brantingham
GETTING YOUR GOAT: Remember Betsy Kain’s campaign to raise money to buy 500 goats to help widows and orphans left destitute by Rwanda’s 1994 genocide? “Because I do volunteer work in Rwanda, I have seen extreme poverty and malnutrition in this very poor country,” Betsy told me. Her church, All Saints-by-the-Sea in Montecito, is affiliated with a nonprofit. Thirty bucks will buy a goat. I sent in $30 for my wife Sue’s first Christmas gift goat. Since its inception, Goats for Gifts has far surpassed the target of 500. “Our count stands at 927,” Betsy said. ...

The Santa Barbara Independent - Thursday, November 15, 2007
by Barney Brantingham
GOATS AS GIFTS: I’ve decided to give my wife a goat as a Christmas gift. Not that she’ll ever actually see it. Seems that for $30 you can buy a goat for a destitute Rwandan widow or orphan who survived the murder, torture, rape, and hunger that swept the African nation during the 1994 genocide. “Because I do volunteer work in Rwanda [doing mental health training for genocide survivors], I have seen extreme poverty and malnutrition in this very poor country,” Betsy Kain told me. Her church, All Saints-by-the-Sea in Montecito, is affiliated with a nonprofit aiming to raise money to buy 500 goats. Gifts are tax-deductible. ...