A Weapon Of War: Sexual Violence In DRC
July 1, 2008
Bukavu , Democratic Republic of Congo
More than five million people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998 – some as a direct result of fighting, most from malnutrition and disease. For more than a decade, multiple warring parties have employed a stunningly effective tactic: militias brutally rape women and girls in a village, instilling fear in the community. Women are afraid to go to the fields to harvest, or to collect firewood and water. When the militias return to rape again, the villagers flee and set up makeshift displaced persons' camps near a water source shared by many others in similar situations, where food is scarce and they are vulnerable to disease.
In Bukavu, a city in the eastern province of South Kivu, the Panzi Hospital has become a refuge for victims of war. Founded in 1999 as a maternity hospital, Panzi soon began treating women with severe internal injuries resulting from heinous acts of sexual violence. More than 3,500 women and girls undergo reconstructive surgery for fistula and other obstetric complications at Panzi each year. Many have been violated in ways too terrible to contemplate — women and girls who have been gang raped with broken glass, knives or guns; family members forced to rape each other at gunpoint, or to watch in horror as their loved ones were mutilated and killed.
The dedicated team of surgeons rebuild women’s bodies and provide free medical care, food, accommodation and support to survivors of sexual violence. Each week, Panzi’s mobile clinic visits outlying areas and brings more women to the hospital. Each woman meets with a social worker and the hospital’s psychologist, but the sheer volume of traumatized women makes it impossible to address their vast psychosocial needs. Their only respite is through sleeping pills; in sleep, they find refuge from the pain they endure daily.
Those who have been raped are also highly vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted infections. “The AIDS virus thrives on sexual violence,” says Stephen Lewis. “Sexual violence thrives on armed conflict. As if one was not devastating enough, these two malevolent realities have joined forces "Nowhere on this planet is there such an ongoing litany of horror visited on women and girls." - Stephen Lewis to declare war on the women of the Congo.” No one knows the real HIV infection rates among the women of the Congo, but at Panzi, an estimated 10% of the women have tested HIV-positive.
In November 2007, the Stephen Lewis Foundation began funding a number of Panzi Hospital’s most urgent needs, including HIV counselling, testing and treatment, and post-rape kits to reduce the likelihood of HIV infection following an attack. Support to Panzi includes salaries for a number of nurses and project staff, gynaecological equipment, and a safe blood screening centre. In conjunction with V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women, SLF is also funding the construction of a ‘City of Joy’; a transitional housing complex where 150 rape survivors will recover and be trained to become leaders in their communities.
In June 2008, Panzi received an additional grant of $300,000 from SLF, which will enable them to increase the number of HIV tests and blood transfusions, reach more women in outlying communities, support children who have been orphaned by AIDS and provide food to HIV-positive patients who are taking antiretroviral drugs.
At the end of June, the Fou“Sexual violence thrives on armed conflict. As if one was not devastating enough, these two malevolent realities have joined forces to declare war on the women of the Congo.” ndation will host a meeting of experts on sexual violence from SLF–supported projects in DRC, Rwanda, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya to address the urgent psychosocial needs of the survivors of rape and violence in the Congo. Together, they will formulate an immediate plan of action to provide counselling and care and create an ongoing network of support.