Ending Violence Against Women in Eastern Congo: Preparing Men to Advocate for Women's Rights

Ending Violence Against Women in Eastern Congo: Preparing Men to Advocate for Women's Rights

Over the past decade, a complex web of local, regional, and national conflict has devastated much of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ethnic strife and civil war broke out in 1996, sparked by a large inflow of refugees from the neighboring Rwandan genocide in 1994. Rebel groups from neighboring countries entered the conflict in 1998. The war, involving seven African nations and many groups of armed combatants, is the deadliest in documented African history. Mortality surveys estimate that nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict, which has been marked by gross human rights violations, often directly targeting women by using rape and other forms of sexual violence as weapons of war. A fragile transitional government of national unity has been in operation since June 2003. General elections, the first since independence from Belgium in 1960, are scheduled for July 30, 2006.

In response to horrific reports of rampant sexual violence from the international NGO community and Congolese women themselves, Women for Women International launched its multi-tiered program of direct aid and emotional support, rights awareness and leadership education, vocational skills training and income-generation support in the DRC in May 2004 to provide services to the socially excluded Congolese women who endured, witnessed and survived these atrocities.

Echoing the reports from humanitarian and human rights organizations, many of the program participants told stories of the horrors they had endured during the conflict, including gang rape, mutilation and sexual slavery. The women also reported that because of the social stigma attached to rape in Congolese culture, they were rejected by their husbands and other members of their communities, in some cases being deserted or literally turned out of their own homes. Still others talked about the daily battles of private violence behind closed doors. As these women began to find seeds of hope through Women for Women International’s program, they called upon the organization to help them educate the men in their communities.