Friday, March 6, 2009
Heal Africa Hospital in the DRC
Where Do Your Donations Go?
HEAL Africa programs and initiatives are run locally, not instituted from a remote location with little understanding of the situation on the ground.
$10 Will:
Buy two hoes
Buy seeds for a garden
Provide a family with mosquito nets
Buy a dress for a woman in the fistula repair program
$20 Will:
Buy sewing supplies for a woman who has learned tailoring
School uniforms for two children
Provide malaria medication and medical treatment
$50 Will:
Buy rabbits for family who cares for orphans
Tuition and supplies for a child in school for 6 months
Support a literacy program for patients at the hospital
$100 Will:
Give a micro-grant and financial training to a family in extreme poverty
Train an activist in HIV/AIDS or a counselor for victims of sexual violence
Give a sewing machine to a patient who has learned to sew at the hospital vocational training program
$200 Will
Provide basic medication to a rural health center
Train two midwives in rural areas with lack of access to healthcare
Support a literacy program for patients at the hospital
Give vocational training and community support to a demobilized child soldier
$400 Will:
Pay for one woman's fistula repair
Pay for a child's orthopedic operation
$1000 Will:
Pay for Antiretroviral medications for three HIV positive children for one year
Pay for the tuition of a HEAL Africa doctor's specialization courses
$1500 Will
Buy a field for a widows group to farm
Support HEAL Africa's orthopedic officers program training rural nurses
$5000 Will:
Build a safe house for women, where women can spend the night in safety en route to medical care in Goma or on the way home, a place where women can learn new skills, have someone to listen to them, and be cared for.
Help build HEAL Africa's child soldier community demobilization program
DONATE NOW @ http://www.healafrica.org/cms/participate/donations/
HEAL Africa programs and initiatives are run locally, not instituted from a remote location with little understanding of the situation on the ground.
$10 Will:
Buy two hoes
Buy seeds for a garden
Provide a family with mosquito nets
Buy a dress for a woman in the fistula repair program
$20 Will:
Buy sewing supplies for a woman who has learned tailoring
School uniforms for two children
Provide malaria medication and medical treatment
$50 Will:
Buy rabbits for family who cares for orphans
Tuition and supplies for a child in school for 6 months
Support a literacy program for patients at the hospital
$100 Will:
Give a micro-grant and financial training to a family in extreme poverty
Train an activist in HIV/AIDS or a counselor for victims of sexual violence
Give a sewing machine to a patient who has learned to sew at the hospital vocational training program
$200 Will
Provide basic medication to a rural health center
Train two midwives in rural areas with lack of access to healthcare
Support a literacy program for patients at the hospital
Give vocational training and community support to a demobilized child soldier
$400 Will:
Pay for one woman's fistula repair
Pay for a child's orthopedic operation
$1000 Will:
Pay for Antiretroviral medications for three HIV positive children for one year
Pay for the tuition of a HEAL Africa doctor's specialization courses
$1500 Will
Buy a field for a widows group to farm
Support HEAL Africa's orthopedic officers program training rural nurses
$5000 Will:
Build a safe house for women, where women can spend the night in safety en route to medical care in Goma or on the way home, a place where women can learn new skills, have someone to listen to them, and be cared for.
Help build HEAL Africa's child soldier community demobilization program
DONATE NOW @ http://www.healafrica.org/cms/participate/donations/
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Stand with Congolese Women and Girls!
46
THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR A WOMAN IN THE DR CONGO
1.3
THE NUMBER, IN MILLIONS, OF ADULTS LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS IN THE REGION
800,000
THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN WHO HAVE BECOME ORPHANS DUE TO AIDS
20
THE PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN WHO DO NOT LIVE PAST THE AGE OF FIVE
The people who have bravely shared their images with the photographers in this exhibition are experiencing the individual reality of the crisis reflected by these statistics. We invite you to show your support for the women and girls of Congo by joining our online gallery and being counted in their numbers.
Go to www.congowomen.org/stand-with-the-women-and-girls-of-the-drc/ and upload your pic today!
THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR A WOMAN IN THE DR CONGO
1.3
THE NUMBER, IN MILLIONS, OF ADULTS LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS IN THE REGION
800,000
THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN WHO HAVE BECOME ORPHANS DUE TO AIDS
20
THE PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN WHO DO NOT LIVE PAST THE AGE OF FIVE
The people who have bravely shared their images with the photographers in this exhibition are experiencing the individual reality of the crisis reflected by these statistics. We invite you to show your support for the women and girls of Congo by joining our online gallery and being counted in their numbers.
Go to www.congowomen.org/stand-with-the-women-and-girls-of-the-drc/ and upload your pic today!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Women of North Kivu Clamor for Peace
(taken from www.healafrica.org)
There were hundreds of women who rallied together on January 9th at the main entrance of Unity Stadium in Goma to protest strongly together about the current peace negotiations in Nairobi, demanding a cease in hostilities and lasting peace.
They were standing up in lines without moving, communicating their messages in seriousness and those passing by were curious to read the words written on their signs.
One could not mistake the following message:
We are tired of this war; we claim peace, no excuses anymore. Why do we let ourselves be manipulated? Why are you killing your own brother? Let us love one another. May God bless DR Congo and may all displaced people return back to their home villages.
All of them gathered in a coalition called Congolese Women’s Voice. The women of North Kivu transformed themselves with the written phrases on their clothes claiming for peace, written in capital letters, both French and Swahili.
Messages were displayed in kiosks, on poles and on visible public places. Pedestrians and vehicles were stopping to look at the messages. Those passing by encouraged the women to continue to fight for peace. ‘We are exhausted of war,’ they said.
The voices of people rang out through the stadium: ‘Enough is Enough,’
The four-hour long protest included speeches from both Congolese women and men. The national press covered the event, which called on the Africa Union, the United Nations, and the international community to be serious about resolving the conflict in the eastern region of DR Congo because all parties have a vested interest in the rich natural resources of Congo.
People from refugee camps surrounding Goma walked 10-15km into town to participate in the rally for peace. They circled the stadium to sing songs of freedom and praises to God. Two prayers closed the rally, one by a Christian woman and one by a Muslim woman.
Both prayed that God would grant peace, and peace alone.
There were hundreds of women who rallied together on January 9th at the main entrance of Unity Stadium in Goma to protest strongly together about the current peace negotiations in Nairobi, demanding a cease in hostilities and lasting peace.
They were standing up in lines without moving, communicating their messages in seriousness and those passing by were curious to read the words written on their signs.
One could not mistake the following message:
We are tired of this war; we claim peace, no excuses anymore. Why do we let ourselves be manipulated? Why are you killing your own brother? Let us love one another. May God bless DR Congo and may all displaced people return back to their home villages.
All of them gathered in a coalition called Congolese Women’s Voice. The women of North Kivu transformed themselves with the written phrases on their clothes claiming for peace, written in capital letters, both French and Swahili.
Messages were displayed in kiosks, on poles and on visible public places. Pedestrians and vehicles were stopping to look at the messages. Those passing by encouraged the women to continue to fight for peace. ‘We are exhausted of war,’ they said.
The voices of people rang out through the stadium: ‘Enough is Enough,’
The four-hour long protest included speeches from both Congolese women and men. The national press covered the event, which called on the Africa Union, the United Nations, and the international community to be serious about resolving the conflict in the eastern region of DR Congo because all parties have a vested interest in the rich natural resources of Congo.
People from refugee camps surrounding Goma walked 10-15km into town to participate in the rally for peace. They circled the stadium to sing songs of freedom and praises to God. Two prayers closed the rally, one by a Christian woman and one by a Muslim woman.
Both prayed that God would grant peace, and peace alone.
Help the IRC and Aisha Tyler Win Big on "Celebrity Jeopardy!"
On March 10, tune in to "Celebrity Jeopardy!" to cheer on actor and comedian Aisha Tyler as she competes for more than $25,000 in winnings for her favorite charities -- including the IRC's lifesaving programs in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
Visit Jeopardy.com to find out where and when to watch.
Visit Jeopardy.com to find out where and when to watch.
The Invisible War
By BOB HERBERT
Published: February 21, 2009
Perhaps we’ve heard so little about them because the crimes are so unspeakable, the evil so profound.
For years now, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marauding bands of soldiers and militias have been waging a war of rape and destruction against women. This sustained campaign of mind-bending atrocities, mostly in the eastern part of the country, has been one of the strategic tools in a wider war that has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since the 1990s.
Millions have been killed. Women and girls of all ages, from old women to very young children, have been gang-raped, and in many cases their sexual organs have been mutilated. The victims number in the hundreds of thousands. But the world, for the most part, has remained indifferent to their suffering.
“These women are raped in front of their husbands, in front of their children, in front of their parents, in front of their neighbors,” said Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who runs a hospital in Bukavu that treats only the women who have sustained the most severe injuries.
In some cases, the rapists have violated their victims with loaded guns and pulled the triggers. Other women have had their organs deliberately destroyed by knives or other weapons. Sons have been forced at gunpoint to rape their mothers. Many women and girls have been abducted and sexually enslaved.
It is as if, in these particular instances, some window to what we think of as our common humanity had been closed. As The Times’s Jeffrey Gettleman, on assignment in Congo, wrote last fall: “Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers.”
Dr. Mukwege visited me at The Times last week. He was accompanied by the playwright, Eve Ensler, who has been passionate in her efforts to bring attention and assistance to the women of Congo. I asked Dr. Mukwege to explain how it was in the strategic interest of the various armed groups to rape and otherwise brutalize women. He described some of the ramifications of such atrocities and the ways in which they undermine the entire society in which the women live.
“Once they have raped these women in such a public way,” he said, “sometimes maiming them, destroying their sexual organs — and with everybody watching — the women themselves are destroyed, or virtually destroyed. They are traumatized and humiliated on every level, physical and psychological. That’s the first consequence. “The second consequence is that the whole family and the entire neighborhood is traumatized by what they have seen. The ordinary sense of family and community is lost after a man has been forced to watch his wife being raped, or parents are forced to watch the rape of their daughters, or children see their mothers raped.
“Neighbors are witnesses to this. Many flee. Families are dislocated. Social relationships are lost. There is no more social network, village network. Not only the victims have been destroyed; the whole village is destroyed.”
The devastating injuries treated by Dr. Mukwege at his hospital can all but stun the imagination. There is no need to detail them further here. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are commonplace. Often the ability to bear children is destroyed. In many other cases, women end up giving birth to the children of their rapists. “The hospital can take care of 3,600 women every year,” said Dr. Mukwege. “That is our maximum capacity. We can’t take any more.”
He spoke of ambulance teams that would drive into villages and be besieged by rape victims desperately seeking treatment. “It is awful to see 300 women in need of help,” he said, “and you have to take 10 because the ambulance can only take 10.”
Ms. Ensler spoke of her encounter with an 8-year-old girl during one of her trips to Congo. The girl’s father had been killed in an attack, her mother was raped, and the girl herself was abducted. The child was raped by groups of soldiers over a two-week period and then abandoned. The girl felt too ashamed to allow herself to be held, Ms. Ensler said, because her injuries had left her incontinent.
After explaining how she persuaded the child to accept an embrace, to be hugged, Ms. Ensler said, “If we’re living in a century when an 8-year-old girl is incontinent because that many soldiers have raped her, then something has gone terribly wrong.”
Despite the presence in the region of the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world, no one has been able to stop the systematic rape of the Congolese women.
If these are not war crimes, crimes against humanity, then nothing is.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 21, 2009, on page A21 of the New York edition.
Published: February 21, 2009
Perhaps we’ve heard so little about them because the crimes are so unspeakable, the evil so profound.
For years now, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marauding bands of soldiers and militias have been waging a war of rape and destruction against women. This sustained campaign of mind-bending atrocities, mostly in the eastern part of the country, has been one of the strategic tools in a wider war that has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since the 1990s.
Millions have been killed. Women and girls of all ages, from old women to very young children, have been gang-raped, and in many cases their sexual organs have been mutilated. The victims number in the hundreds of thousands. But the world, for the most part, has remained indifferent to their suffering.
“These women are raped in front of their husbands, in front of their children, in front of their parents, in front of their neighbors,” said Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who runs a hospital in Bukavu that treats only the women who have sustained the most severe injuries.
In some cases, the rapists have violated their victims with loaded guns and pulled the triggers. Other women have had their organs deliberately destroyed by knives or other weapons. Sons have been forced at gunpoint to rape their mothers. Many women and girls have been abducted and sexually enslaved.
It is as if, in these particular instances, some window to what we think of as our common humanity had been closed. As The Times’s Jeffrey Gettleman, on assignment in Congo, wrote last fall: “Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers.”
Dr. Mukwege visited me at The Times last week. He was accompanied by the playwright, Eve Ensler, who has been passionate in her efforts to bring attention and assistance to the women of Congo. I asked Dr. Mukwege to explain how it was in the strategic interest of the various armed groups to rape and otherwise brutalize women. He described some of the ramifications of such atrocities and the ways in which they undermine the entire society in which the women live.
“Once they have raped these women in such a public way,” he said, “sometimes maiming them, destroying their sexual organs — and with everybody watching — the women themselves are destroyed, or virtually destroyed. They are traumatized and humiliated on every level, physical and psychological. That’s the first consequence. “The second consequence is that the whole family and the entire neighborhood is traumatized by what they have seen. The ordinary sense of family and community is lost after a man has been forced to watch his wife being raped, or parents are forced to watch the rape of their daughters, or children see their mothers raped.
“Neighbors are witnesses to this. Many flee. Families are dislocated. Social relationships are lost. There is no more social network, village network. Not only the victims have been destroyed; the whole village is destroyed.”
The devastating injuries treated by Dr. Mukwege at his hospital can all but stun the imagination. There is no need to detail them further here. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are commonplace. Often the ability to bear children is destroyed. In many other cases, women end up giving birth to the children of their rapists. “The hospital can take care of 3,600 women every year,” said Dr. Mukwege. “That is our maximum capacity. We can’t take any more.”
He spoke of ambulance teams that would drive into villages and be besieged by rape victims desperately seeking treatment. “It is awful to see 300 women in need of help,” he said, “and you have to take 10 because the ambulance can only take 10.”
Ms. Ensler spoke of her encounter with an 8-year-old girl during one of her trips to Congo. The girl’s father had been killed in an attack, her mother was raped, and the girl herself was abducted. The child was raped by groups of soldiers over a two-week period and then abandoned. The girl felt too ashamed to allow herself to be held, Ms. Ensler said, because her injuries had left her incontinent.
After explaining how she persuaded the child to accept an embrace, to be hugged, Ms. Ensler said, “If we’re living in a century when an 8-year-old girl is incontinent because that many soldiers have raped her, then something has gone terribly wrong.”
Despite the presence in the region of the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world, no one has been able to stop the systematic rape of the Congolese women.
If these are not war crimes, crimes against humanity, then nothing is.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 21, 2009, on page A21 of the New York edition.
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