A recent report issued by the American Medical Association (AMA) has had me and SOS FED’s staff thinking about some possibly unexploited “entry points” in the fight against sexual violence in Congo. The AMA report revealed that 74% of reported rapes in the Kivus and Ituri Province in 2009 occurred during active combat. This is not surprising, as conflict breeds insecurity and vulnerability in a manner more potent than possibly any of the other factors of the rape epidemic in Congo under current scrutiny. It’s evident that when chaos takes root, the most vulnerable of the population, in Congo the women and children, suffer disproportionately. These cases represent three-fourths of the cases of rape in Congo.

However, SOS FED beneficiaries being interviewed by our field staff have begun to tell a different story concerning their vulnerability which draws a bit of our focus towards the remaining quarter of cases from the AMA study-the women being raped in areas where conflict isn’t a daily reality. While fighting occurs semi-regularly in SOS FED program areas (some areas worse than others), the majority of the rapes SOS FED beneficiaries report occur while they are pursuing the most mundane of daily tasks under relatively peaceful regional circumstances. Often, the rapes occur in broad daylight in villages deemed more secure than others in Fizi Territory. The beneficiaries report to us that cultivation, collection of firewood, and taking water from Lake Tanganyika have gone from predictable work to be done on a daily basis to frightening and risk-filled work. This forms a troublesome question to consider: Why exactly does the number of rapes continue to increase in areas where fighting has lulled, accounting for nearly a quarter of the cases of rape reported in eastern Congo in 2009?

One major factor to consider in answering this question is the presence of soldiers across eastern Congo, even in areas not directly involved in current fighting. Contrary to widespread perception of Congo, there are areas in which gunshots don’t regularly provide the evening soundtrack. Nevertheless, in these areas we encounter no shortage of FARDC troops. These soldiers have been brought up and trained in the Congolese military system in which impunity and lack of oversight are the norms. MONUSCO supports them with medicine, food, ammunition, but has not yet come to the point where monitoring of what they do with these materials occurs in any clear fashion. Thus, we see large brigades of underpaid, well-armed, soldiers not necessarily involved in defense (because of lack of a clear enemy or lack of a will to protect civilians) of a community. The stage is set in this way for even secure villages to be overtaken by sexual violence and other crimes against civilians as these soldiers not only lack a clear mission but also lack the oversight necessary to ensure that undisciplined soldiers do not feed off the population.

Civilian rape is possibly a more compelling point of interest in assessing the vulnerability Congolese women face, even when residing in more secure regions of the country. A recent study by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) shows nearly a 17-fold increase in the incidents of civilian rape reported to organizations working with victims of sexual violence between 2004 and 2008. One of the contributors to this study, which was conducted in South Kivu, commented that, “Before [rape] was like a gun in a war. Today, though things have cooled down, the mindset remains in people…” Thus, we see that rape has becoming increasingly normalized among civilians. If it’s true that violence begets violence, by the same logic rape begets rape. Civilians have not only viewed rape on an immense scale throughout the years, but also seen that very few violators are punished for their crimes. The international community has a controversial role in this regard; MONUSCO’s extensive support to the FARDC is on shaky ground given that nearly 80% of the rapes reported in the region occur at the hands of their troops. Does this not send the wrong message to soldiers and civilians alike across Congo?

It is possible that the insufficient focus has been place on the “25%” of the AMA study. If nearly 75% of rapes occur during active conflict, then a quarter of the rapes occurring in eastern Congo occur in areas enjoying periods of relative peace. For those hoping to stop sexual violence in Congo, this quarter of cases demonstrates a key point of entry. Steven Levitt noted in Freakonomics that arms are simply a way to upset the “natural order” of things, and nowhere is this more evident in Congo. A woman who knows her rights, knows how to stay safe, and does not expose herself to vulnerability-increasing behavior still will fall when it comes down to an armed man with an intent to rape. In a conflict-ridden Congo, this is a given despite the best efforts by NGOs and civil society groups. Perhaps an emphasis on prevention (collective cultivation, education, rights training, etc.) among women in areas not rife with fighting is a means of eliminating the cases of sexual violence which represent the 25% of the non-conflict related rapes occurring across eastern Congo ever year.  These cases being eliminated would surely represent the most significant reduction of sexual violence which has occurred in Congo to date since the epidemic came to be in the early years of the conflict.

Working to eliminate the 25% of cases occurring in non-conflict situations could have significant implications on the 75% of cases occurring in conflict. First, the empowerment of a group of women who otherwise would have been victimized forms a potent tool in the regional effort to eliminate sexual violence. Secondly, and more importantly, if and when the conflict in eastern Congo comes to a close, the prevention of rape in non-conflict situations will be valuable to ensure that civilian rape is curbed. It would be ill-advised to assume that rape in Congo will end because of the end of the conflict, given that numbers of civilian rape are on the rise.

This thinking has really informed our approach to sexual violence in Congo for 2011. We hope to stress prevention in areas where prevention can work. This is not to say that we ignore areas where conflict induced vulnerability reigns supreme, but means that we place equal value in the effort to prevent rape where possible through programs and education as we do in our effort to treat women who suffer rape in Fizi Territory’s more dangerous conflict zones. It is a fine balance, but focusing a bit on the 25% of cases which don’t occur at the barrel of a gun might make significant progress in the fight against sexual violence in Congo.

Ned Meerdink

When I think about all of the lessons I have learned in three years in Congo, one comes to mind as the most important of them all: The basics of life are 1) difficult to come by and 2) never to be taken for granted. Across the world, people struggle for water, food, and fuel, but never have I seen a daily struggle for the basics burn as it does in eastern Congo.

Standing by the side of a dirt track my colleagues and I took turns cutting a broken radiator fan out of our truck with a razor blade I meant to use for a much needed shave, I was forced again to think about the difficulties in collecting the basics of what it takes to live in Congo. Surrounded by nothing but forest and hoping the truck would eventually start again, I saw nothing much worth looking at besides the occasional woman passing by, always carrying one of the following loads: 1) a plastic container of water, 2) a bunch of cut wood, or 3) a basket of just-harvested manioc or beans. It would be nice to say that these women went about these daily tasks with a certain joie de vivre in recognition of a job well done, but all I saw was perspiration and grit, and the women’s knowledge that the closest village was a long stretch ahead. “Whistle while you work” did not come to mind in the 90 F weather. I watched as the most fundamental of the building blocks of life-food, water, fuel-were passing en route to their final destination on women’s heads and backs, yet only through sweat and drudgery of the highest degree.

I was traveling to a village called Kikonde, a place I have been numerous times before, where SOS FED has kept a reception center for rape victims going despite constant insecurity and logistical challenges. In Kikonde, the sacrifices Congolese women make to achieve the most basis necessities of life were further emphasized in 40-or-so interviews with SOS FED beneficiaries about the situations that have led them to become victims of sexual violence. As Kikonde is now crawling with former CNDP rebels from Laurent Nkunda’s psychotic pack now on the Congolese government’s payroll, we got a predictable number of women reporting that their rapes occurred during the night when soldiers simply kicked in their doors and took and did what they pleased. This is all too common in the epoch of President Kabila’s Amani Leo Operation. However, what took us a bit by surprise during the interviews was the sheer number of women saying that they were attacked and raped during their efforts to bring fuel, water, and food back to their homes for their families. The stories were shockingly unanimous: A woman was walking by herself to a well, by herself to her fields, or by herself to cut wood for her fires, and was taken by soldiers hiding out in the rural areas where these resources are concentrated throughout Congo. We had heard this in other interviews conducted throughout the years and certainly read it in policy papers, yet for some reason the stories stuck out like a sore thumb this time around.

So, if you are working as SOS FED is to prevent women from being overly vulnerable to rape, where is the key point of intervention? These interviews proved that if we ensure that the basics can be achieved by women without increasing their vulnerability to rape, significant strides would be made in the battle against sexual violence. When we asked what women thought would decrease their vulnerability while getting water, wood, and food the answer was as unanimous as the answers to the previous question. Collective management of these resources and strength in numbers in taking these resources to women’s homes would prevent rape. Women offered us examples of their experiences in collective fields, where roving militia members encountered women working in large groups and realized that a large group has an uncanny ability to identify assailants to local authorities. These would-be-rapists were forced to go elsewhere to find more isolated victims. What if there were no isolated would-be victims left to attack?

Thus, an elementary connection between rape in eastern Congo and isolation while bringing home the basic elements of life was made infinitely clearer by our time in Kikonde. It’s another example of the overwhelming truth that local communities know most about the ways to improve their lives. Far too few people, NGOs, and research tanks take the time to ask. Want to know how to stop the war being waged on Congolese women? Just ask the women who have already fallen victim to it.

Me, SOS FED, and AP are now thinking on how exactly to urge communities to collectively work to get these resources where they are needed without putting women in harm’s way. Surely civilians in an area under control of sordid militias are always potential victims of those who carry the AK-47s, but a collectivity of organized civilians working together at key places of vulnerability, such as in their fields or near isolated sources of water, forms a significant “check” against a soldier looking for a lonely and therefore vulnerable target. This is where we need to be focusing our attention to help reduce women’s vulnerability to rape in Congo.

Ned Meerdink

A Kikonde woman's embroidered image of her rape, which occurred while she was alone, cultivating her fields in an isolated field. Her story was in sync with many other stories we heard in Kikonde.

**Caption for photo above-blog portal being difficult with my photo captions-”A Kikonde woman’s embroidered image of her rape, which occurred while she was alone, cultivating her fields in an isolated field. Her story was in sync with many other stories we heard in Kikonde.”

I recently arrived back in Bujumbura after a productive, albeit dusty and tiring, séjour in Mboko village, South Kivu, Congo. The SOS FED field team, having come together from all corners of Fizi Territory, had some interesting things to share, and really brought me up to speed on the progress of the current campaign of rape prevention they have put into place. The journey to Mboko was remarkably free of problems, and a little bit of planning kept us moving quickly through the road blocks and security check points. Thanks very much to SOS FED’s Uvira team for that. Here is a quick recap of what went during the Mboko meeting.

First, AP and Zivik have provided much needed support for SOS FED’s community fields program, which was a key agenda for the days of meetings in Mboko. The program, in a nutshell, encourages survivors of sexual violence working with SOS FED to form cooperative cultivation teams, then rents them the necessary hectares of land and monitors their production. Money made in the fields is divided among the cooperative cultivation teams, with each woman benefiting directly from their work. This may sound basic, but the key difference from traditional cultivation in Congo lies in the ‘cooperative’ aspect of the current program. Far too many SOS FED beneficiaries have found themselves in their current place-that is, trying to recover from violent sexual violence-because of their need to cultivate fields in often remote regions of Fizi Territory, where land can be rented at the lowest price. So, AP and Zivik have begun providing fields to women once two conditions have been met. First, a field must be located near a principal route or well-traveled footpath. Second, a field must not be worked by one woman, but by her cooperative group. In this way, vulnerability is reduced in that women are cultivating together (strength in numbers) and doing so in areas of Fizi Territory that are not so isolated as to provide ideal striking grounds for the regions roving militias. This slight modification has been showing positive signs of reducing vulnerability and protecting Congolese women trying to put food on their table. We all gave a big ‘bravo’ to this program, and are currently toying with numerous ways to precisely monitor field output in order to determine which types of crops in which areas provide the most profit to SOS FED’s beneficiaries.

Amisi from SOS FED and I in Mboko village

Amisi from SOS FED and I in Mboko village

In addition, the much awaited ‘Ahadi’ program has been given wings as of this last meeting. Though the program is well underway, the AP Fellow working from Bujumbura and I will be saving details on this until a later date. The program involves art as a means for advocacy, and places SOS FED beneficiaries in the driver’s seat of their own advocacy campaign. More on that will be available later. Materials are in place and the wheels are in motion.

Finally, the SOS FED field teams and I touched base on the current situation in and around the three SOS FED reception centers in Fizi Territory. The news is bleak, in that all of the centers are currently above capacity and receiving new visitors looking for a safe space to stay daily. The current Amani Leo operation in South Kivu has not ended the rape crisis as one might think from listening to Congolese Radio. Surely, Amani Leo is forcing FDLR militias deeper into the forests, but that doesn’t stop them from raping local women. It merely moves the sites of these violations to much less traveled areas of South Kivu where the Amani Leo force ceases to hold influence. Additionally, as the Amani Leo force is formed of FARDC [Congolese soldiers-reportedly responsible for 80% of the rapes in eastern Congo] and the ex-CNDP [notoriously violent militia soldiers once commanded by war criminal Laurent Nkunda], the population is not necessarily much better off than if the FDLR roamed free in the region. Correct me if I am wrong here, but rape is rape, regardless of the militia du jour that commits it. A perfect example lies in the fact that the SOS FED Mboko center was pillaged and forced to empty not too long ago at the hands of the state-sponsored protectors of Congo, the FARDC. No militia necessary. Thus, not a jovial ending to this blog, but a hopeful one in that the work continues.

None of the SOS FED field staff in attendance at Mboko gave any signs of the weariness a life in Congo can inspire. Quite the opposite, their presence at the meeting was a testament to their strength and commitment to improving their region. This will involve making good use of scant resources, staying organized, pulling from that never-ending well of patience and resilience, and keeping SOS FED moving towards their admirable goals. This is a lot easier said than done, especially in such an ‘interesting’ zone of eastern Congo. But, like I said, the work continues.

Ned Meerdink

This evening, I returned home from my most recent series of planning meetings with AP’s DRC partner, SOS Femmes en Danger (SOS FED). This time, our meetings were logistical in nature, as we are currently organizing a large meeting/training session/organizational update for the SOS FED staff and have to figure out how exactly to get the staff from each SOS FED reception center to Mboko village in South Kivu to rendez-vous. SOS FED currently has 3 reception centers for survivors of sexual violence in South Kivu spread throughout the province in the villages of Mboko, Kikonde, and Kazimia.

300 kilometers of no roads and questionable security conditions through numerous rebel-held villages separate Center Kazimia, the southernmost from the SOS FED installation, from the northernmost Center Mboko. The SOS FED village field workers are preparing to arrive by a confusing combination of motorcycles, boats, and transport lorries normally reserved for corn and manioc in order to get to our meeting on the 2nd of August to speak face-to-face and truly begin putting the ‘Combating Sexual Violence in Eastern Congo’ campaign into action.

So, next time you are considering the horrible inconvenience of your two hour layover in Indianapolis or even your ten hour wait in Addis Ababa en route to somewhere else, consider the following itinerary for our SOS FED representative working in Kazimia, South Kivu:

1. Take the dugout pirogue from Kazimia towards Yungu. Estimated time of travel is anywhere between 5 hours and 2 days, depending on the load of fish being ferried and the availability of gas in Kazimia to power an unpredictable outboard motor. The captain of the ship has failed to sympathize with our plea to get our colleague to Yungu in time to meet and thus can’t even guarantee the day he might be on his way. Quote: ‘When gas costs $3/liter, we can’t really move without the boat being full of fish to sell to pay our way back. So, I’ll send a message once we get enough fish.’ This is more than understood by everyone on our end, but there are no cell phone networks in Kazimia, so we are unsure how the message will reach us.

2. Arrive at Yungu whenever, and get moving on foot towards Kikonde. Believe me, a 35 km walk is a lot slower when navigating around shady road blocks in mid-day Congo sun. In the event of a nighttime arrival our colleague will have to sleep at the port, because at night the road blocks get drunker.

3. Now, hitch a ride to Baraka, which is a city center in South Kivu, on board a motorcycle making the trip without a passenger. We’ve gotten lucky in the past with drivers from larger aid organizations on the lookout for an extra passenger or two and the ‘pocket money’ that service generates for them. And make haste, because real delays are to be expected at road blocks at Kikonde and on the outskirts of Baraka.

4. Finally, get yourself on a bus for the remaining 150km towards Mboko on any truck in sight moving north. Riding on top of bean sacks with 50 other passengers here is not to be ruled out, but don’t plan on a very cushy ride or even a seat for that matter. Also, everybody out on hills and on river crossings…

After all this, our colleague will be in Mboko with us, following between 2 days and a week of traveling. And, as I’ve seen with my own eyes many times, she’ll arrive in nice clean pagne (fabric), not a hair out of place, looking like she’s on the way to a wedding—at the same time mentally poised and ready to sort out a pretty complex program. It defies all logic, but then again the Congolese women are the toughest and most resilient I’ve ever been lucky enough to work with.

Ned Meerdink

I arrived last week to Uvira, South Kivu, in order to participate in a marathon of surprisingly exhausting meetings with SOS FED field workers concerning the current rape prevention program they have partnered with AP on. The journey to Congo from Bujumbura was much the usual-annoying slow and marred with checkpoints. However, a shocking event occurring on the road into Uvira the previous week had forced me to prepare a bit for the chaos that often ensues when working in and around South Kivu, Congo. This blog, consequently, is much more about this event than the content of the meetings we held in Uvira.

Last week, a gas truck coming into town overturned on the ever-perilous excuse for a road into Uvira. The truck flipped near Sange village, which is just outside Uvira, and was reportedly trying to make good time to Uvira to avoid driving at night when the road fills with armed groups and road blocks. As many Congolese in the area of the truck converged to collect the valuable gas spilling from the ruptured tanker, the spill ignited and burned possibly 300 people to death. Many of those burned to death were not interested in the pillage of the spilling gas, but were simply watching World Cup matches on generator-powered television sets in the thatch hut bars which offer the ‘nightlife’ in any Congolese village. An exploding tanker, however, does not discriminate and a large portion of the densely populated village was reduced to ashes.

The estimates of the death toll are imprecise, but the fall-out since the original accident has been drastic as Uvira has no medical facilities equipped to deal with burn victims, and no space to keep them out of the dust and dirt. A nurse from SOS FED working in Sange temporarily commented that the death toll could easily double due to the likeliness of burn victims not killed by their wounds developing untreatable infections. He also mentioned the difficulty in counting the dead, as ‘…young kids and those closest to the truck when it exploded were just ash by the time the fire died down a bit.’ Some burn victims were sent to the already over-burdened hospitals in Bukavu, the provincial capital, but the majority of burned civilians have to make do with local services and occasional visits by Médecins Sans Frontières mobile clinics and other NGOs helping out where they can. You’ll find a recent report of the incident here.

In a place where a liter of gas’s value is a lot more than most people’s daily income, one can understand the lure of spilling gas quickly absorbing into the sand. I immediately thought of the situation a lot of people in Sange might have been in at the time and the difficult decision to be made. The opportunity to grab an empty US AID oil can and join in on a classic ‘victimless crime’-especially in order to assure another week’s meals-might be too hard to resist. In this instance, small-time theft had tragic repercussions for an area of the world which has already seen its share of tragedy.

IDPs (Internally Displaced People) on the road out of Sange village ahead of CNDP/Kimia II advances last year. This family actually ended up living in the house next to mine in Uvira for a few months.

Ned Meerdink

After an absence that ran far too long, I am happy to be back in Bujumbura, Burundi en route to Congo.

I arrived just in time to see the result of the Burundian ‘election’—there was only one candidate.  Much to the surprise of international observers, the US Department of State, and myself, the only candidate was reelected with a minimal amount of disarray in Bujumbura.  Some quartiers in Bujumbura were victims of opposition-led grenade attacks and shootings.  However, the general opinion in town was that some disturbances are only normal for a Great Lakes election.  So one experiences an air of business as usual in Bujumbura, an incumbent president successful in his campaign, and an unsettling finality to a more or less stolen election.

Across the border in Congo, the end of June brought the celebration of their 50^th year free from Belgian colonial rule.  Amid the country-wide parades, demonstrations of military prowess, and self-congratulatory speeches given by President Joseph Kabila, a movement of discontent was visible and televised throughout the region.  Large demonstrations were organized throughout eastern Congo as counters to the enthusiastic celebration of the 50^th anniversary of independence.  Most were led by groups holding signs declaring ‘50 Years of Blood Flow’, ’50 Years Later: The Theft Continues During Our Days’ and ‘Congo Raped Before and After Independence’.  Organizers were quoted at length, and most commented on the current kleptocracy’s theft of minerals and lack of proper allocation of profit towards social services promised by the current government, the continuing violence in North and South Kivu provinces, and the feeling that war will always be a part of Congolese day-to-day life.

These protest marches were of course not meant simply to give a pessimistic air to Congo’s party, but to call attention to the overwhelming failings of the current administration to address the issues which affect all Congolese.  Of these, the issue which comes to the forefront and draws me here again is sexual violence, and the quite literal rape of Congo.

In 2007, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the work of a Congolese NGO called SOS Femmes en Danger (SOS FED), which works to provide basic care for the ever-increasing number of rape victims in south Kivu Province.  AP was able to solidify a tight partnership with SOS FED since then, and has been working to support and draw international attention to their work.  This next year, with the help of AP and the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IVF), SOS FED is unrolling a broad-based campaign of rape prevention, which is targeted towards empowering women to reduce their personal and collective vulnerability to rape.  As AP’s representative in Congo, I am charged with monitoring and reporting abroad on this ambitious project.  Marceline Kongolo, SOS FED’s Executive Director, has already been recognized by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and scores of the ‘who’s who’ in foreign service, and I am pretty honored to be part of her excellent team again.  I’ll be blogging regularly until January, and will be providing much more in depth information as we go along.  Please don’t hesitate to follow this blog, link to it where pertinent, and help get the word out about SOS FED’s work in eastern Congo.  I’m off to Congo tomorrow morning, and I must say I am itching with anticipation over this much-awaited homecoming.

Ned Meerdink       

This last week, I have been in Fizi Territory, which is the province directly south of Uvira, where I am now living. Although Fizi is really only about 200km (about 125 miles) from Uvira, Congo never fails to turn what should be a relatively simple trip into something altogether different. Our original plan was to get to Fizi 10 or 11 hours after leaving from Uvira.

The lack of roads between Uvira and Fizi was not surprising, but what was unexpected was the week of rain that preceded the trip south, turning the dirt tracks to deep mud. After going only about 50km toward Fizi in a UN Land Rover, we were pretty much swallowed into a big hole, with mud up to the car doors. After a couple hours spent trying to get the car moving again, we realized that this was futile, as the tracks only got worse after Mianda (the closest village to where the Land Rover was stopped). So, we abandoned the Land Rover with the driver, hoping that another NGO would come along to help tow him out of the hole. The 4 of us left on foot bringing along 60 liters of gas and the video equipment, which we were using to document the programs of SOS Femmes en Dangers in Fizi for a short film to be shown at this year’s Vital Voices GLA Awards (see blog posting below concerning the work of Marceline and SOS Femmes en Dangers). We were lucky enough to find an NGO motorcycle along the route, who offered to move us 1-by-1 towards our final destination in Kazimia. Thus, 10 hours as predicted quickly became 30, not including the night we passed in a village in between the abandoned car and Kazimia. The people in the village (called Kikonde) where we stayed that night were surprised to see 4 unknown mud covered people coming into their village, but they were more they were really generous, and found us some food (smoked fish and fou-fou) and a place to sleep.

Finally arriving in Kazimia about a day late, I started making rounds right away to let all the necessary people know I was in the village and that I would be taking video. When arriving in Congolese villages not accustomed to having foreigners walking around, the first thing you always have to do is meet with the representatives from the militias, local administrators, intelligence officers, etc. so that they can help you stay safe (by letting you know if there is any fighting in the area and where not to go) and also so that they are completely aware that you are authorized to be working in the area, thus making it harder for them to harass you, put you in prison, order you out of the village, etc. It might seem strange to let shady types know where you are and what you are doing, but my experience tells me that if I am upfront and make sure each potential problem group knows I am there, things go a lot better. Taking video in Congo is always a sensitive subject, especially when filming something shameful to the Congolese government like their inability to protect their women from rape and other violence, which was the nature of the video we shot. Thus, a little “grease” money is always in order, and 3,000 Congolese francs (about $4) usually does the trick to get you full access and a signed letter from each local official and militia leader more or less authorizing you to be filming. It’s a shame that this is the case, but it is what it is and anyone working in Congo knows that all efforts to resist the occasional bribe to get things moving will eventually be trumped by reality and the fact that most officials and soldiers here are unpaid, and used to extracting their salary wherever possible. They are definitely okay with making your life difficult and your work impossible without a small payout.

That accomplished, we were finally able to start filming, albeit about 1 day and a half behind schedule.
The projects SOS Femmes en Dangers we were to film were located in Kazimia, Mboko, and Makobolo, and all were really impressive but difficult to stomach at the same time. In Mboko, we visited and interviewed some of the 125 women spending the day at Marceline’s reception center for recently raped women. The women were encouraged to see that even a small amount of international attention was being focused on the struggle of Congolese women to recover from often brutal rapes, but were realistic in asserting that despite their denunciations of rape by militias, government soldiers, and civilians, the government is largely incapable of protecting them. The sheer number of women at the reception center was a testament to their solidarity and will to defend themselves, but also to the fact that the presence of sexual violence in Congo is continuing without signs of slowing down. At the reception center, one of Marceline’s co-workers who manages the center (we profiled and interviewed her as well) told us that besides the rampant raping of women, Congolese society views women as having “…11 arms. Enough to do all of the work at the house, cultivate the fields, and raise the children while the many men pass their time doing nothing.” She added that constant denunciation of the poor treatment of Congolese women could eventually have a positive result in improving their situation, but that this was impossible without addressing the fact that often raped women are left by their husbands and thus live without support. One woman we interviewed spoke on similar lines, telling us that she was recently raped by four FDD soldiers (Burundian rebels) and that after her husband heard of the rape, he threw her out of the house.

SOS Femmes en Dangers responds to the need for income generation among women abandoned by their families by offering centers like the one we visited in Kazimia, where a sewing workshop and communal field has been established. Through these two operations, women are given options and small amounts of income (they sell the clothes they make and the food they harvest) with which they can continue to live and support their children. The women interviewed at the sewing workshop commented that the work was going well and that they felt increasingly empowered to have a form of income, but concluded that the lack of enough machines and fabric was really holding the center back from helping the huge numbers of raped and abandoned women trying to work at the workshop. Marceline’s field worker told us that while over 300 have arrived to try to get into the program, only about 50 or 60 at a time can do so due to the space and material limitations. The market is there, but the input (capital) is lacking.

One of the stories of recently raped women we heard repeated over and over was that they are most vulnerable when they are tending their fields. Because of the long work day, they will often leave their houses at 4 am, a time when those traveling the road are still vulnerable to militias/rebels/robbers who are generally more active between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am in the rural parts of Congo. Arriving at the fields to endless work, women often are forced to pass the night in their fields, where they build temporary shelters to avoid the long walk home late at night and to make it easier to begin work early the next day. Te respond to this, SOS Femmes en Dangers has purchased community fields, not far from the main track through Kazimia and Mboko, where women are safer to cultivate and encouraged to do so in large groups, as they are less vulnerable in larger numbers. This year’s mavuno (harvest) of corn, manioc (used to make fou-fou), and ground nuts is predicted to be a good one, and will allow the women cultivating the communal fields to generate income in a safer atmosphere than their previous fields located in isolated regions far from the center of the village.

So, it is obvious that the problems for Congolese women are nowhere near their end, but if any positive can be drawn from my short time in Fizi this last trip it is that the women here refuse to submit silently to their abuse. An attitude of “silent shame” is being replaced by a more proactive one, and that process is definitely expedited by the work women like the those we met in Fizi are fearlessly undertaking. If you could see the region, you’d realize that there is no protection for women besides their solidarity. “Remote” does not begin to describe it. As Marceline discusses regularly with women concerning how to decrease their vulnerability, walking to the fields together is a start, supporting those who are raped without prejudice helps, and rallying together against those abusers of human rights will go a long way in time.

There were lots of other visits worth noting, but I’ll just say quickly that we saw great things being done in the most difficult of situations in Fizi. The women we spoke to were empowered, organized, and fighting for increased independence and increased recognition of their human rights, which are regularly violated in what has traditionally been a lawless place. I had gotten some emails asking for more information on SOS Femmes en Dangers and Marceline, so hopefully this blog has responded to those. I should be in FIzi again with Marceline and her co-workers towards the 8th of March, where we are making one final field visit before her trip to Washington D.C. to be present at the Vital Voices Awards. You can see her profile here on the vital Voices website if you need more information, and thanks for reading the blog. I’m hoping to turn some of the interviews taken in Fizi into profiles to be used for an upcoming SOS Femmes en Dangers advocacy campaign which we are trying to organize or April. If you’d be interested in receiving the profiles or campaign information sometime in April, please feel free to comment on the blog and I’ll get back to you.

Ned Meerdink