Raise Hope for Congo

http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/

To protect and empower Congolese women and girls, the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign works to:

• Raise awareness about the crisis, the resulting widespread sexual violence against women and girls, and the solutions that are necessary to end the conflict.
• Increase news coverage of the conflict in eastern Congo.
• Build a movement of activists who can advocate effectively for change.
• Influence and change policy on the Congo through promotion of the 4Ps – Peace, Protection, Punishment, and Prevention – the four ingredients necessary to END the mass violence against women in Congo.

Congolese women and girls in particular bear the vicious brunt of this crisis. Indeed, eastern Congo right now is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or a girl. Used as a weapon of war, sexual violence and rape exist on a scale seen nowhere else in the world. Often successful in its intent to destroy and exterminate, rape is causing the destruction of women, their families, and their communities. Congo’s women are the backbone of Congolese society and are the country’s best, brightest hope. Yet efforts to protect women and girls in the Congo are failing spectacularly.