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This paper draws attention to the obligation and opportunity to respond to the mental health impacts of collective sexual violence (CSV) among genocide-rape survivors in post-genocide Rwanda. Qualitative data gathered from CSV survivors who were members of Rwandan women's genocide survivor associations are presented to illustrate how they strive to overcome adversity while seeking access to quality mental health care and using informal community mental health services. The results reveal that a system of high quality, holistic health and mental health care is yet needed to meet Rwandan CSV survivors' complex and serious health and mental health needs. Given that a rural health system, modelled on community-based, comprehensive HIV/AIDS care and treatment, is currently being implemented in Rwanda, we recommend enhancements to this model that would contribute to meeting the mental health care needs of CSV survivors while benefiting the health and mental health system as a whole within Rwanda.

Anthropological scholarship on motherhood offers frameworks for studying the everyday lives of mothers to reveal a deeper understanding of what mothering means and how motherhood relates to broader sociocultural forms. Theory emerging from psychological anthropology explores the interplay of resilience and suffering in contexts of extreme adversity. Bringing together these bodies of work, this article engages with a lacuna in the scholarship and examines how motherhood shapes women's resilience among Rwandan genocide‐rape survivors. We elucidate how motherhood opened them to new forms of sociality in the context of postgenocide Rwanda. Maternal desire gave rise to a motherhood assemblage that fostered diverse modes of resilience, created the potential for new life possibilities, and placed limitations on opportunities. Our findings suggest that emotional experience is crucial to resilience among Rwandan genocide‐rape survivors who are mothers and point to future directions for research and health promotion among populations affected by conflict‐related sexual violence.

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