Please donate if you can while the violence still goes on these women need our help so that support and medical help can be provided to them:
http://www.ircuk.org/about-irc-uk/media-centre/stories-and-voices/article/date/2009/11/eastern-congo-women-are-afraid-that-they-could-be-raped-any-night-here/

16 Days: Taking action to end violence against women. Just checked this out also – I hadn’t heard about the 16 days campaign before – astounding considering this is the 18th anniversary! I suppose that shows one of two things or maybe a bit of both – I have not been looking in the right place or this is given little publicity, getting lost amongst other “news”.

This is an extract from the IRC website page and the link is below:

2009 marks the 18th anniversary of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence” campaign. The campaign brings together people from around the world to speak out against violence against women. The campaign begins each year on 25 November – the International Day Against Violence Against Women – and continues until 10 December, International Human Rights Day. These dates were chosen to highlight how violence against women is a serious violation of human rights. Over 2,000 organisations from 156 countries have participated in the campaign since 1991, according to the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University, which launched the event.

To mark the start of this year’s 16 Days campaign, Heidi Lehmann, the director of the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) gender-based violence technical unit, discusses how the IRC is making a difference in the lives of women and girls in conflict zones around the world…

http://www.ircuk.org/about-irc-uk/media-centre/news/article/date/2009/11/16-days-taking-action-to-end-violence-against-women/

So far, three of us have donated to the International Rescue Committee’s campaign. My goal is to have 43 of us donate. Will you be next? Please let me know if you decide to donate money so that I can track my progress towards this goal.

Click here if you would like to donate to the IRC.

Here is a short video of Janet Harris recounting her experience visiting women in the Congo with the IRC.

_{image: theirc.files.wordpress.com}

Check out The V-Wall for Congo, continually updated with blogposts on the subject from a multitude of blog authors. Also check out V-Men, posts from men writing about violence against women from a male perspective. Both happen to be on the V-Day site that Jansu posted.

Also check out 3 Generations.

_{image:www.3generations.org,
Adele, 19, and her daughter, born after she was raped, photo by Lauren Vopni}

_{Who will help prevent these atrocities from being visited upon Adele’s daughter? What will we do?}

You must also act.”

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

_{image: blogs.ushmm.org}

Extracts from an article on CNN.com earlier this month – you can read the whole article here…
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/08/11/congo.rape/

“The United Nations estimates 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Congo over the last 12 years, when war broke out with Rwanda and Uganda backing Congolese rebels seeking to oust then-Congo President Laurent Kabila. Rape became a weapon of war, aid groups say.

“It is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or girl,” says Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 10 years focusing on Congo. “These are often soldiers and combatants deliberately targeting women and raping them as a strategy of war, either to punish a community, to terrorize a community or to humiliate them.”

According to the United Nations, there were 15,996 new cases of sexual violence registered throughout Congo in 2008. Nearly two out of every three rapes were carried out against children, most of them adolescent girls, the Human Rights Watch report says.

A paltry 27 soldiers were convicted in military courts last year. Under the current court system, the military handles accusations of rape against its soldiers—something aid groups say must be changed for real accountability.

Since January of this year, aid organizations say there’s been a surge of violence against civilians as a result of Congolese operations against Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are believed to have participated in 1994’s Rwandan genocide. The fighting has left more than 1.8 million people displaced in the volatile region, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Aid groups have started to see an uptick of rapes of men this year, although women and girls remain the primary targets. “The brutality has increased on a huge scale,” Van Woudenberg says.

Congo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence. In 2006, its parliament passed a law criminalizing rape, with penalties ranging from five to 20 years. Penalties are doubled under certain circumstances, including gang-rape and if the perpetrator is a public official. Kabila’s wife, Olive Lemba Kabila, has launched a public campaign speaking out against rapes of the nation’s women and girls.

The army has also started a zero-tolerance campaign in which commanders have emphasized to troops that they must respect human rights and protect civilians from harm, according to the U.N.

In May, the United Nations handed over the names of five top military officers accused of rape. Two of the senior officers are now detained in the capital of Kinshasa and the three others must report to authorities under close observation. “It’s expected that a trial could happen soon,” said U.N. spokesman Yves Sorokobi. “It certainly is a big development. ... It’s important. It’s significant.”

Still more must be done, aid groups say, starting with the establishment of a special court made up of Congolese and international judges and prosecutors to investigate rape allegations.

Borkgren, the photographer from Eugene, Oregon, says she went to the Congo after having a dream in which two women yelled at her to “come over here.” She won the grant and traveled there for four weeks, beginning in November of last year. She hitchhiked her way around the country, something she now admits was “a little bit stupid.”

She says she once came face-to-face with soldiers when she was shopping at a market by herself. One of the men said he wanted to “take me up to his camp.” She still can’t shake the looks of the local women who were there.

“That was interesting,” she says. “When the soldiers were harassing me, the women looked ashamed of the soldiers. And when they saw me tell them, ‘No, go away,’ the women looked at me quite surprised.”

Eventually, she found the girl who touched her heart—“the great, great kid.” Borkgren first spoke with her father, who was initially reluctant to introduce her to his daughter. He explained that the family had gone to authorities, only to be ignored…..”

Please help keep the pressure on/help those who have been hurt by donating or in any other way you can(more info below and on Nicolasc’s entries).

http://www.vday.org/drcongo/getinvolved

http://www.theirc.org/special-report/congo-forgotten-crisis.html

but it’s a very important goal so it’s staying up.

Nicolasc was the person to start this goal and has provided some very powerful information on her page. Please have a look and try to find a way to help; whether it’s spreading the word about what is happening in Congo or whether you’re able to help financially, it all makes a difference.
x

Clinton visits Congo on Africa tour

KINSHASA, Congo – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promoted democracy in the war-devastated country of Congo on Monday and drew attention to an epidemic of sexual assaults in its violence-torn east.

While in the Congolese capital, Clinton will visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, a native of Congo, and will hold a town hall meeting.

On Tuesday, she plans to go to Goma where she will meet victims of horrific rapes and other sexual crimes committed by the military and rebel groups, many of which are fighting over the region’s vast mineral wealth.

Clinton said in Kenya last week that she insisted on visiting Goma despite her staff’s security concerns “to speak out against the unspeakable violence against women and girls in eastern Congo. It is the worst example of man’s inhumanity to women and women are being used in conflicts.”

On Monday, she told reporters traveling with her that she also wants to look at ways “to prevent the mining from basically funding a lot of these militias that are keeping the fighting going with all the attendant human rights abuses.”

The United Nations has recorded at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence in eastern Congo since conflict erupted in 1996, at its height drawing in a half dozen of the country’s neighbors, each greedy for a share of the region’s rich mineral resources.

A 2003 peace deal reduced the fighting but both the army and rebel groups continue to attack villages and kill civilians.

More than 5 million have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless over the past decade, with brutalities commonplace in rural communities, including gang rapes, that have led to unwanted pregnancies, serious injuries and death to tens of thousands of women and girls.

Earlier this month a leading human rights group demanded that Congo crack down on rampant sexual violence perpetrated by military generals and other top officers.

Citing U.N. data that show 7,703 cases of sexual violence by the army reported last year, Human Rights Watch said the Congolese authorities have failed to prevent the attacks, most of which were on adolescent girls.

The group called on the U.N. Security Council to take “tough measures,” including travel bans, and other sanctions against individuals or governments that commit or condone sexual violence in Congo and elsewhere.

On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for global action to stop government forces and armed groups from using sexual violence “like a grenade or a gun” to pursue their goals, including in Congo, Chad, Sudan, Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Clinton’s Congo stop is the latest in an 11-day journey through Africa to promote development and good governance and underscore the Obama administration’s commitment to the world’s poorest continent.

She arrived in Congo from Angola, South Africa and Kenya. She will also visit Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.

_{images:presidencynews.com, welt.de}

_{news report from Associated Press}

If you’d like to make a donation to IRC’s efforts to help these families, click here. Or send a donation to the address I included in a recent post. Let me know if and when you are able to contribute something. Thanks!

Gender-based Violence Programs

Women in DR Congo share their stories with Sarah Mosely/The IRC

The bodies and spirits of women and girls are the forgotten frontline in conflicts throughout the world. Sexual violence is not just a by-product of war; it is a strategy of combat systematically used to terrorize and humiliate.

The consequences of violence against women are debilitating and many: risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, damage to reproductive organs, and broken bones. The psychological and social consequences are equally as devastating, as the prevailing stigma associated with sexual violence often leaves women isolated and increasingly vulnerable. The trauma a survivor experiences goes beyond her own suffering, also rendering great costs to her family and community.

The threat of assault follows women and girls as they flee conflict. And it lingers long after fighting ends. In war-torn regions where destruction, displacement and lawlessness breed yet more violence, women increasingly face abuse in their homes and may be forced to exchange sex for survival.

Around the world, the International Rescue Committee helps survivors heal and works with communities and institutions to break the cycle of violence. As first-responders in emergencies such as in Central African Republic, the IRC works hands-on to deliver urgent care and referrals for victims of assault. In longstanding crises, we provide safe spaces for women to come together for support and to build skills at our women’s centers. And in the aftermath of war, such as in West Africa, the IRC addresses the root causes of violence against women by helping them gain greater economic independence and play a more meaningful role in decision-making.

Through grassroots campaigns that channel women’s voices about their experiences, we work with partners to reach out to men and boys to change attitudes that foster violence against women. We also advocate with government officials to advance laws preventing violence against women, and enforce policies ensuring survivors’ access to care and legal justice.

The recovery of communities devastated by war relies heavily on the participation of women and girls. The IRC works to foster conditions in which women and girls not only survive the effects of conflict, but ultimately thrive.

Learn more and find informational links here.

Below are just a few links you will find:

Fact Sheet: Global Gender-based Violence Programming – IRC GBV Technical Unit Fact Sheet [PDF]

Special Report and Blog: With help from the IRC and writer/photographer/women’s advocate Ann Jones, women in West Africa’s conflict zones are documenting their own lives with digital cameras and making their voices heard.

Interview: Sarah Mosely on IRC programs for rape survivors in Congo. Also, read our GBV technical unit’s fact sheet [PDF] about breaking the cycle of violence against women and girls in Congo.

Joey, Cessie, and hopena have joined this goal, too. _{(I’m not clear on whether these three were able to make a donation to IRC or not, but I still thank you for joining this goal – let me know if you did make a contribution so I can check my progress towards meeting the goal.)}

Thank you, I’m starting to feel hopeful again!

By the way, if you prefer anonymity,you can always PM me that you sent a contribution, and I will add you to the tally without using your name.

sorry, had to clear a spot for this one. Can’t think of many things in life that I’d want to do that are more important than this. Thanks for bringin this to my attention too nic.