What’s Happening to Women in the Congo

Imagine a beautiful country with lush jungles and majestic views, overflowing with natural resources like gold and oil. Now imagine that this country has been destroyed by decades of war. Its citizens are poor and starving: Hundreds of people die every day from preventable illness and malnutrition. The country’s wealth of natural resources is being illegally exported. And, worst of all, the women—mothers, sisters, daughters—are being abused, raped, and systematically destroyed.

Congo Map

This country is real, and these horrible things are not from a history book—they’re happening now. Welcome to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a Central African country as large as Western Europe.

Since 2003, the DRC has been dealing with the aftermath of the Second Congo War, also known as Africa’s World War, the deadliest war since World War II. The issues surrounding this war are complicated and involve prior political conflicts in other countries, including Rwanda, but the continuing violence in the Eastern part of the country is being fueled by ethnic prejudice*.
Since the Second Congo War begin in 1998, over three million people have died, and tens of thousands of Congolese women have survived physical abuse and rape at the hands of foreign troops. But this isn’t just individual soldiers raping women. For the first time ever, rape is being used a weapon—just like guns or grenades—as commanders tell their soldiers to rape as part of their fight against the DRC and its people.

The details of many Congolese women’s stories are gruesome and heartbreaking, and their physical and mental trauma is lasting. As a result of rape, women and girls are subject to tears in their vaginas as well as sexually transmitted diseases that, without treatment, lead to pain and bleeding, trouble urinating, and the inability to have children. It’s also been estimated that 30 percent of the raped women have been infected with AIDS.

Then there’s the stigma*. Many Congolese rape survivors are shunned when they return to their communities, even though rape is not the woman’s fault. Families sometimes even turn their daughters and wives away right after they have been raped.

So what is being done to support these women? Unfortunately, not much. After fourteen years of war, the public health system in the DRC is in terrible disarray. Citizens have to pay for treatment out of their own pockets. In a country where many cannot even afford food or clothing, a doctor’s visit (plus the cost of travel to get there) is often out of the question. Some Congolese rape survivors live years with torn vaginas—without medication, pain relief, or the hope of getting the surgery they need. There are still a few dedicated doctors, like Dr. Denis Mukwege of the Panzi Hospital, the only hospital in the country dedicated to survivors of sexual violence, but he is one person in a sea of thousands of patients.

One of the biggest ways we can all help the women of the DRC is through awareness. Outside of Central Africa, there is hardly any coverage of the issues surrounding the fighting in the DRC. Recently, that has begun to change. Lisa F. Jackson made the documentary The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, which features interviews of Congolese rape survivors. The film won an award at the Sundance Film Festival and, since it aired on HBO, has been reviewed and covered in major newspapers. There have also been exposes in magazines like Glamour and Ms. which have led to additional media attention.

However, the more people know about what’s going on—and are outraged by it—the more funding and support we will be able to provide Congolese women!

Want to learn more and get involved?

For more information:
http://www.panzihospitalbukavu.org
Learn more about the Panzi hospital and Dr. Mukwege’s story.

http://www.thefledglingfund.org/media/human-rights/the-greatest-silence-rape-in-t.html
Watch the trailer for The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo and find links to more
resources.

http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/08/reallifedrama
This shocking article appeared in Glamour and documents the author’s experience in the DRC.

http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200502/omag_200502_congo.jhtml
Read first hand accounts from Congolese women.

To take action:

http://www.vday.org/contents/drcongo
Find out how YOU can directly contribute to the fight against sexual violence.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5578745801
Join the Facebook cause and spread the word to your friends!

* Ethnic prejudice: hostility toward people of a different racial, national, religious, linguistic, cultural, or tribal group.
* Stigma: sense of shame (not necessarily deserved)