Victims of Congo's Rape epidemic - how you can help.

I have been following this story on various news sources. We have two Congolese refugees as part of our community, and so we also get first hand news from their families and friends. This is such a sad and violent issue.

Soldiers in the DRC have been using rape as a weapon to subdue and destroy communities in the Congo. Their acts of abuse and violence have multiple effects. First, they rob young women of their lives since the rape victims are often infected with HIV. Second, they rob them of their childhood since the young women often fall pregnant and spend the rest of their young lives raising the children of their abusers. I cannot imagine the torture of such a life.

Here's more on that story.
Earlier in the year the New York Times ran a story entitled - "Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War." Susannah Breslin tipped Boing Boing to that story, and she provides an update.

The [NYT] piece painted a horrifying portrait of mass rapes in war-torn Eastern Congo. According to the UN, 27,000 women were raped in the South Kivu Province in 2006, and ?[t]he sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world." These rapes are particularly brutal: "Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair," wrote Jeffrey Gettleman, the East Africa bureau chief of the Times. "'We don?t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,' said Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo?s rape epidemic. 'They are done to destroy women.'"

(...) In the [Boing Boing] comments, a reader asked: "Does anyone know of anyway people could help?" So, I wrote an email to Gettleman, asking if there was something people could do. Gettleman suggested I get in touch with Erika Beckman, Project Manager of the Female Victims of Sexual Violence project at the Panzi Hospital. I've posted her email in full. Let others know how they can help stop the Congo rape epidemic by posting about it on your blog.

Information on how to make financial donations and provide other forms of support are detailed in the full text of Susannah's post: Link.

Previously on BB:
Africa -- rape epidemic in Congo war worsens

Reposted from Boingboing.

Technorati tags: Congo, Rape, sex as a weapon, destroy, fear