Ending Sexual Violence
The Stephen Lewis Foundation is committed to providing quick and effective support in crisis situations for grassroots organizations working at the crossroads of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS.
AFRICAN INSTITUTE ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE
We have already begun work with expert grassroots organizations in sub-Saharan Africa to design and build a mobile African Institute on Sexual Violence and HIV/AIDS. The Institute will provide culturally-sensitive trauma counselling and capacity and emergency response skills during and after crises — such as the post-election violence in Kenya; the ongoing conflict in the DRC, and politically-motivated rape in Zimbabwe.
Led by African women, the Institute will also be a much-needed forum for advocates to come together to exchange new ideas, approaches and lessons learned around sexual violence and AIDS, and provide assistance to those in need.
PROJECT EXAMPLES:
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| Panzi Hospital in DRC. Photo by Paula Allen / V-Day |
Here are just a few examples of the projects we fund that are working to support women affected by the intersection of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS:
- For more than 20 years, Zimbabwe’s Musasa Project has worked to change societal beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and laws in order to put an end to sexual and gender-based violence. They provide counselling, support groups, shelter and legal advice to women in crisis, and work to end the culture of silence around gender violence and HIV/AIDS through public education and outreach.
- The Girl Child Network (GCN) in Zimbabwe works to address the extreme vulnerability of girl children to rape, forced early marriage and exploitation. Today, more than 60,000 girls meet regularly in over 700 Girls’ Empowerment Clubs, where they share their stories and receive counselling, vocational training, health care and legal advice. GCN’s campaign to end sexual violence against children has contributed to changing Zimbabwe’s child rape laws.
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), HEAL Africa works to transform communities that have been ravaged by more than a decade of conflict. HEAL Africa’s Mothers of the Nation programme provides victims of violence of all ages – including widows, orphans and the grandmothers caring for them – with psychological counselling, free medical care, educational support, skills training and income-generating activities.
- The Panzi Hospital in eastern DRC provides free medical care, trauma counselling and support to some 3,000 women each year who have suffered severe internal injuries and obstetric complications resulting from rape and other forms of sexual violence. The dedicated team of surgeons, social workers, nurses and counsellors at the 450-bed facility work around the clock to reconstruct women’s bodies and help them work through their deep emotional wounds. In addition to reconstructive surgeries, Panzi also offers HIV testing, post-exposure prophylaxis and socio-economic reinsertion programmes to help survivors return to their communities. Panzi’s mobile clinic reaches women in rural and outlying areas, bringing them in for treatment and ensuring that they receive basic medical care and assistance.
- Down the road from the Panzi Hospital, V-Day’s City of Joy is a transitional residence – currently under construction – for survivors of sexual violence who have recovered from their injuries but need a safe space to work through their emotional trauma and gain life skills to reintegrate into society. Run by Congolese women for Congolese women, the City of Joy will be a community where 100 women (and their children) can gain leadership skills, support one another and live for six months at a time in a secure, calm and empowering environment.