A heartbreaking story from the Congo...and how you can help

I opened my latest issue of Glamour Magazine (of the anonymous gifting), and in between the makeup tips and materialistic mayhem, I found this. Remember the piece from Newsweek on the mountain gorillas of the Congo? Here is what is happening to the women and girls there. It has haunted me most of the evening, particularly one woman's story. This so needs to be publicised far and wide, and something must be done to save the people, land, and wildlife of the Congo--before it's too late.

Women left for dead—and the man who’s saving them

Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler writes a moving piece on the women of East Congo who have been gang raped and tortured and the man who has pieced their bodies and minds together and given them a sanctuary at a struggling private hospital. It's a ray of hope in a barbaric conflict--the world's deadliest since WWII, with almost four million having died so far*--where cowardly thugs destroy women, children, and families as they patrol the countryside. Please read the story. At times it is very graphic, and you wonder how these men can even be human. But unfortunately the darker side of humanity can be very brutal. On the other hand, the work of Dr Mukwege shows what one person can do with dedication to bring light to that darkness.

What you can do:

The women of Eastern Congo, V-Day and UNICEF—the latter acting on behalf of United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict—are launching a new campaign to urge an end to the femicide and raise money for women’s groups in the Congo. You can…

• Write a letter addressed to His Excellency, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila Kabange; demand that he take action to stop the attacks on women. Send it to U.N. Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, P.O. Box 3862, New York, NY 10163, and it will be delivered to Kabila.
  
• Donate directly to Panzi Hospital through vday.org. Money donated to Panzi also goes to establish a City of Joy, a safe haven for the healed women, where they’ll learn to become political leaders.

According to Wikipedia, on

July 30, 2007, a report by Yakin Erturk, special rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Council on violence against women, found extreme sexual violence against women is pervasive in the DRC and local authorities do little to stop it or prosecute those responsible. Her report also found 'women are gang raped, often in front of their families and communities. In numerous cases, male relatives are forced at gun point to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters.' Survivors told Ertuck that after rape, many women are held as slaves by the gangs and forced to eat excrement or the flesh of their murdered relatives.**

*The New York Times, "War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions" By Lydia Polgreen, July 30, 2006, as referenced by the Wikipedia article on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**RTÉ News, "UN: Violence in Congo 'beyond rape'", June 30th, 2007,as referenced by the Wikipedia article on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For an Israeli video shot in Panzi Hospital, watch this:

Part I


Part II