Community-Driven Responses to Rape in Congo

by Harper McConnell

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published March 02, 2009 @ 09:28AM PT

The piece below was written by Harper McConnell, the US Director of Development for HEAL Africa. She spent two years in Goma, DRC, and is now based in Seattle. 

As mentioned before, too many - far too many - posts about rape simply focus on women as passive victims.  This piece is the third in a series by HEAL Africa, which focuses instead on how one aid agency is working with rape survivors and communities to respond to this crisis. Part one is here, and part three is here.

To read more about the causes, consequences and responses to mass rape in Congo, see here.

Community-Driven Responses to Rape in Congo

In addition to peace, the development of human infrastructure is necessary not only to reduce the pervasiveness of sexual violence, but also to cope with the impact the violation imposes on both the woman and the population. By training and investing in community members who can play integral roles in the healing and prevention processes, HEAL Africa aims to make gender-based violence an issue that the community must tackle; not just a problem that a woman must deal with on her own.

Charlotte Riziki fled her hometown of Masisi with her three children and her husband while she was pregnant during the second Congo war. She was a schoolteacher in Masisi and her husband was a tradesman. When they reached Goma, the provincial capital, they had nowhere to stay, no money, and were surrounded by other refugees in the same position. Her husband decided to join the army with the hopes that he could somehow provide for the family. He was sent to a different province and two months later Charlotte received notice that he was killed.

She now had four children and was unable to feed them everyday. Before the war, she and her husband had no problem providing for the basic needs of their family, but now Charlotte did not know how they could survive. A woman in her church told her about a widows’ group that met to encourage and pray for one another. It was there that Charlotte met several widows who were HEAL Africa counselors who had dedicated themselves to helping women who were survivors of sexual violence.

Charlotte impressed the counselors with her gentle, yet determined demeanor despite her tragic circumstances. They asked her to come to a counselor training session at HEAL Africa. After the training, she was hired as a counselor to supervise a Safe House that provides shelter, counseling, literacy, and vocational training for survivors of sexual violence. After 5 years of working with HEAL Africa, Charlotte now owns a house, pays for all of her children to attend school, and is a source of strength and wisdom for women who are treated at the HEAL Africa hospital for rape and labor-induced traumas.

She is one of the 320 counselors trained by HEAL Africa to identify and assist survivors of sexual violence. She now works at the hospital, counseling patients who are waiting for fistula repair surgery. At any given time there are 120-150 women waiting for fistula repair, a condition induced by either brutal rape or lack of pre-natal care and labor complications, causing incontinence. The hospital specializes in fistula repair and orthopedic surgery and performs more than 1000 operations a year with a staff of 18 Congolese doctors and 48 Congolese nurses.

Fistula is an isolating condition, shaming the woman for her inability to give birth and for the obvious hygienic issues associated with incontinence. Not only this, but the majority of women from rural areas support themselves through agrarian means. But, a fistula makes it incredibly difficult to spend hours in the field. So, while they are at the hospital they have the opportunity to participate in a program called Healing Arts that provides sewing classes, literacy classes, and small business and financial training. It provides them with a way to make money during their stay by sewing Healing Arts products which are sold in Congo and North America, equips them with skills that are applicable for their life at home, and most importantly creates a space where physical and emotional healing is possible.

When a woman returns home from the hospital she receives a micro-grant to continue with the skills she learned. She returns not only physically healed but also with confidence in her capacity to support herself. But, just as important is the community’s response to the woman when she returns and what they are trying to do to prevent sexual violence.

The Nehemiah Committees, as mentioned in part one, are community committees made up of 10 leaders from different religious denominations and tribes. HEAL Africa works with 70 committees who are charged with doing what they think is necessary to reduce sexual violence in their areas and direct those who have been violated to appropriate medical care. The Nehemiah Committee members bring this mandate into their respective faith communities and have open dialogue about attitudes and treatment towards women and what needs to change for the health of the community. They refer women to Safe Houses, and even care for women within their own homes and churches.

Enabling the community to be part of the healing and prevention process is the crucial element in fighting sexual violence. The effects of the violation of a woman ripple throughout the whole community and change will come slowly as more and more people like Charlotte Riziki and the members of the Nehemiah Committees come together in solidarity to protect women, the core of the society.

What You Can Do

-Find out more about how to support HEAL Africa’s work at www.healafrica.org

-Ask your representative to support House Resolution 1227 condemning sexual violence in DRC and calling on the international community to respond. Click here for the letter.

[Photo of Charlotte Riziki, HEAL Africa sexual violence counselor]