Oil exploration in Virunga National Park

Guest lodge at Virunga National Park.

Virunga National Park is the jewel of the African rainforest. It is perhaps the most biologically and geographically diverse area on the planet. Its borders contain a vast array of species and lakes, as well as tropical forest, savannahs, and volcanoes. A UNESCO World Heritage Center, this park has come to represent the African forest that supports the planet.

And it's in trouble.

Aside from the continuing African World War that is being fought inside its borders, a corrupt charcoal trade that is toppling its trees, and rampant poaching that's endangered its unique species, Virunga National Park has another rival: SOCO International. This park -- that is intended to be some of the most protected land on the planet -- sits on top of a store of oil. And yes, SOCO set its sites on drilling there. They are exploring as we speak.

If you care about climate, you care about Congo.

BFFs.

It feels a little odd to redact a man's head, but I'm not sure if the photo will put him in danger. Danger is imminent all over the park, in fact, more than 130 rangers have been killed since the war started a decade and a half ago. Those rangers die increasingly because they are protecting people in the park -- not wildlife.

Last month, Emmanuel de Merode, Chief Warden of Virunga National Park, was ambushed and shot in his car as he was driving from Goma to Rumangabo. He was shot four times over his stomach and legs. There isn't enough information available to reach a conclusion about what happened, whether it was a random attack or a deliberate message from any of several parties who do not like the aggressive conservation strategies he's implemented to preserve the park.

De Merode survived, and issued this statement where he discourages speculation about the attack.

Map created by European Space Agency.
 

The southern tip of Virunga National Park is located just north of Goma, DRC. Northward, it shares a border with Uganda. This is a region that is brutally affected by the DRC civil war, in fact, the war is playing out inside the park. De Merode tells this story in a TED talk circa 2011:


So, what about the oil?

In 2010, the DRC government opened 85% of Virunga National Park to oil exploration. Right now, SOCO International is the only concessionaire actively working in the park. Most of the oil is thought to be underneath Lake Edward, which is the Great Lake next to Uganda on the park map above. In an excellent article about the park, Fred Pearce tells us that SOCO claims they can extract this oil without harming the environment, and will increase living standards for the people living nearby:

More controversially, Soco claims that the oil, which is thought to be mostly under and around Lake Edward, can be extracted from Virunga without doing environmental harm. And the company suggests that its activities can “help raise living standards for local communities to levels sufficient to reduce their pressure and negative impacts on the protected area.” So far Soco says that it has improved a road, built a medical center, and installed a mobile phone mast at Nyakakoma, one of three legal fishing villages in the park.

We might cry "hooey" on SOCO's claims. Hooey or no, it's important to recognize two things:

• The park can be used to generate sustainable economic sectors without drilling for oil, in fact, the park already has strategies toward green development in place. Tourism and renewable energy are two ways this park can genuinely improve standard of living for local communities in ways that support continuing, positive change there.

• If Virunga National Park cannot be protected, neither can the rest of the rainforest in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reason this danger is vitally important is clear from the map below:

The Congo Basin is one of Earth's lungs.

The map above was generated by Mongabay. Mongabay provides a lot of useful information, including a larger, more readable version of the map, about ground cover distribution and deforestation, so please have a look. And here are some fun facts about the Congo rainforest:

• The Congo Rainforest is the second largest in the world. The largest is the Amazon Rainforest.

• The Congo River (located entirely inside Democratic Republic of the Congo) is the second largest river by volume in the world. The largest is the Amazon River.

• The Congo Basin contains more than 18% of the world's rainforest.

• More than 60% of the Congo Rainforest lies inside of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• 12.5% of the earth's remaining tropical rainforest lies inside of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What to do about a rainforest ravaged by war halfway across the world?

Action List!!! (US centric)  

-- If you have the means, contribute to Virunga National Park. If you can't contribute, watch the videos here and tell all you can about the danger to the park. Donating money and raising consciousness are absolutely the most effective actions you can take to support efforts to mitigate.

-- Learn all you can. Start with the links here, and read on. Also, stay tuned for further updates.  

-- Understand that this is a critical time for the DRC government. The next two years will tell if they are a constitutional government or not. In 2006, the DRC passed a new constitution that includes women's rights, among other useful features. One of those is tenure of office for the president. In 2016, the current president must step down according to the current law. Our State Department is urging him to follow the constitutional law.  

-- Write to the US Department of State, particularly Secretary Kerry and Special Envoy to Eastern Congo Russ Feingold. Tell them that you support sustainable development projects rather than oil drilling in Virunga National Park.  

-- There is a new documentary about the park, Virunga, that is screening at limited locations now. If it is showing near you, see if you can get a group to the screening. If not, the link contains a tool you can use to request a screening in your city.

Here is yet another film about Virunga National Park:

   

Women in Congo Succeeding Together

Some of you here know me and are familiar with my interest in development and gender equality in Democratic Republic of the Congo. You have extended kind comments and interest in diaries I've written about HEAL Africa in the past, and expressed interest in new projects I stumble across. Well, today I want to tell you about something new and wonderful. I also have an action item for you at the end. First, I want you to meet Judy Anderson. Here, she is being interviewed at Clinton Global Initiative while she was director at the US based HEAL Africa, which she and her husband Dick founded: Judy is a talented facilitator. She has been working with national leaders, vulnerable people, and communities to find real solutions so people in Congo can build a better life. She grew up in Congo, and has been focused on helping groups address health, leadership, gender equality, economic growth, and conflict resolution for most of her adult life. Her focus and commitment recently lead her and Dick to found a new non-profit organization called ACT for Congo.

ACT's website is under construction and the tax status is still pending, but Judy is hard at work supporting real change. I think this organization is a genuine treasure. Following lessons learned by Robert Chambers (see Rural Development: Putting the Last First or Whose Reality Counts: Putting the First Last) and Paulo Freire, her goal is to find a way to support effective development projects in Congo that are run by proven Congolese community leaders and grassroots organizers. She partners with credible organizations who are doing effective work and demonstrating measurable, positive change in DRC communities.

International relief organizations have their role in helping countries ravaged by famine, upheaval, and war, but they execute temporary projects with finite goals. External relief does not often create any lasting positive change. Lasting change in Congo has to come from the people of Congo.

Next, I want to tell you about one of ACT's partner organizations, HOLD-DRC. HOLD is an acronym for Humanitarian Organization for Lasting Development. It was incorporated as a non-profit inside Democratic Republic of the Congo in April 2012. Its board of directors is made up of mostly people who worked as senior staff at HEAL Africa in Congo that were interested in approaching human development in an integrated way, and wanted to create a new organization focused primarily on improving Congo’s low human development index by addressing community development and public health.

HOLD runs an amazing program called Succeeding Together that is focused on helping single -- teenage, unwed, abandoned -- mothers. Mothers of children born outside of marriage are left to the periphery of society. Traditionally, they can hold no position of real respect, and often live with their children in abject poverty with no hope for a better life. There isn't even a common word for "unwed mother" in the DRC -- the term means "girl mother" at best, and it demonstrates that these women are not held in any esteem. HOLD thinks these women have tremendous value. In fact, they have so much value that they can change the face of Congo.

HOLD has a comprehensive training program for them. When they graduate, they have what is equivalent to an associate's degree in tailoring, cosmetology, or culinary arts -- as well as training in how to run a business. They learn leadership skills, and focus on governance and peer education in human rights and basic health, such as malaria prevention, HIV prevention, planned approaches to reproduction, and how to avoid and care for common illnesses such as respiratory infections. HOLD also teaches early childhood development and runs a daycare for mothers who are studying in their programs -- although day care centers are mostly unknown in the DRC.

Most of the people in the DRC don't have access to microcredit. That involves a bank, and they mostly haven't been in a position to attract one. To that end, HOLD has initiated a rotating credit program where its graduates can have access to a small pot of money which they share with a small group of other graduates. The group has democratically elected leadership, and all loan terms are negotiated collectively by the group's membership. So, if a group of five women shared a pot of $100, three women might borrow $20 each to grow their businesses and pay back the pot plus interest in six months. Then it's another woman's turn. The system keeps their businesses growing, and establishes a solid business ownership and credit history for them -- which is what a bank or credit institution wants to see before extending microcredit.

When a woman enters this program, she joins a human development club of about ten women who are living in the same neighborhood. They support each other and share circular credit to help start and grow their businesses. Together, they become leaders in their community. These women are sharing what they learned with other women, and they are making quite an impact.

In the following video, you'll meet a brilliant woman named Modestine Etoy. She is the coordinator of Succeeding Together: And here a woman tells her story:

In the video above, Natalie says that she doesn't have trouble buying soap anymore. In Congo, this is a euphemism for, "my basic needs are met." If you have food for your children and a roof over your head, you can buy soap. To date, 238 women have completed the training program -- and on April 14, a class of 83 more will graduate.

Here is the action request: The women want to extend their leadership by spreading their message that real change is possible in Congo. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of communication in the DRC aside from national radio. Cell phone technology is growing by leaps and bounds, though, and the internet is becoming more and more common. The women at Succeeding Together want to make a music video with famous Congolese musicians Innoss'B and Maisha Soul. If this video gets made, the message will ring across Democratic Republic of the Congo. The musicians have volunteered their time and studio for writing, recording, and filming the video with the women at Succeeding Together. They only need money for gas to run a generator to provide electricity to their studio for the time they need to work. My dear friend Kyondra Kennard posted a Kickstarter, which will expire in a few days. If you could donate a pittance, that would be great. If you can't -- could you please spread the word?
Kyondra's Kickstarter link is here. (This fundraiser has ended.)

Here is a recent Innoss'B video (he's the youngest brother in Maisha Soul -- and a celebrated star in Congo): Crossposted from elsewhere -- original post date was March 8, 2014. Note that this fundraiser is complete. If you want to contribute to similar projects, see www.actforcongo.org.

Maisha Soul: "Our music is our gun."

Reposted from elsewhere -- original post date was May 10, 2011
In the west, we hear hopeless stories about the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it's hard to imagine that anything positive could be happening there. But it isn't all war and violence. There is a peace movement and it's got traction. A leading voice in this movement for peace and reform comes from the artists.

Maisha in Swahili means "life". They are Prince, Eric, Achilles, and Innocent Balume -- four brothers who chose to water the seeds of peace and hope rather than those of conflict and despair. They came to the US with to raise awareness about the peace movement -- that there is another way for Congo, and their country is so much more than brutality and violence.

The Lake Kivu region has been plagued by conflict and natural disasters. The genocide in Rwanda brought refugees across the border and destabilized the country. Soon, a revolution replaced the government (then Zaire), but the new leadership was unable to stop events that lead to the Second Congolese War, which is also called The Coltan War, The Great War of Africa, and The African World War. In 2002, near the end of the Second War, the nearby volcano Nyiragongo erupted, destroying about half of the city of Goma.

Maisha Soul was born after the eruption in a refugee camp. The war was over, but their lives hadn't changed -- they were living as if the war continued. Life was painful, and there was despair everywhere. It was then that the four brothers started to sing. They sang to lighten the hearts. The oldest brother and front man, Prince, told their story. They were dispaced by the volcano, but couldn't sit by and give in to the darkness. They knew that love was the answer. Loving brothers and sisters, yes, but also the identifable other. With pain and death everywhere, the only answer is love.

People were forced away from their homes, and often couldn't find shoes or food. Life for them was difficult. We sang to bring the message of love. If you live tomorrow it will be a miracle, but today you can choose love instead of despair.

(My paraphrase of Prince, who said it more beautifully.) Today, Maisha Soul works with other artists from Goma to spread a message of hope -- bringing the larger community together to find a better way. A way to love the other. Below, Maisha Soul performs with Emma Katya Katondolo, another artist/activist from Goma.

Because of the war in the Lake Kivu region, it is difficult for artists to have a voice. To this end, Maisha Soul is building a production company that will give legs to the music in Goma -- to provide recording technology and resources to help artists promote their work across the country and abroad. Congolese musicians are beginning to have a presence on the internet, so they will be able to connect with the world and spread their message of hope. Music is better than a gun. Update 5/2/2014: Here are some more recent videos by Maisha Soul. Innoss'B is Innocent, the youngest Maisha Soul brother:

The best of grassroots in the Congo.

Posted elsewhere, September 2010.

Update: Mama Muliri now collaborates with HOLD-DRC, who is ACT for Congo's founding partner:

In December (2009), one of the HEAL Africa counselors was dispatched from Goma to Lubutu to advocate for a woman that needed legal help. The woman was a patient in a hospital where a nurse raped her. She was poor and powerless to prosecute him without HEAL Africa's help.

When the counselor intervened, the hospital administration fired the nurse, who was sorely indignant at losing his job. He had been well paid, so his family lost their standard of living. Tribal leaders in the local villages saw this as a grave injustice against the man, and began to make dire threats to kill the counselor, and they promised to band together and sabotage HEAL Africa's operations throughout the region.

This story has been unfolding since last December, when a huge transformation was born in North Kivu and Maniema. This is political change rooted from the ground up, organized by HEAL Africa in partnership with the American Bar Association. Their work is bearing fruit.

The ABA/HEAL Africa partnership teaches people about the DRC constitution passed in 2006. The new law defines rights for women and children; it defines “abuse”, and clarifies inheritance. Rape is now illegal in all contexts, and young girl cannot be married to an older man. They provide legal counsel for victims of sexual violence, and support them through the prosecution. ABA/HEAL Africa also works with local judges and lawyers to create a justice system where rapists go to jail and sentences stick.

This is Mama Muliri. She is a community organizer who founded HEAL Africa's Heal My People program. She brings the best of grassroots activism to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Muliri responded to the threats by going to Lubutu herself and facing the tribal leaders eye to eye. As promised, they met her brandishing machetes and guns. They chanted and threw rocks at her, but she stood her ground, told them about the new constitution passed in 2006, and explained how the law differed from the tribal customs. She demanded that they comply with the law, and asked them to attend a HEAL Africa conference on conflict transformation.

A tribal chief holds the keys to changing society in his village. A chief's voice trumps the national law, which is often not trusted or understood, because it is written by unknown people in remote places. The chief determines the de facto law and chooses what is ethical and moral. He defines the values in his community. Tribal elders advise him, and they and act as judge and jury for all local disputes. The chief's word is final.

Mama Muliri's act of defiance marked the beginning of a rich collaboration between HEAL Africa and the tribal leaders. They are now working together to create a new future for the Congo.

HEAL Africa and the ABA conducted three days of meetings where the tribal leaders learned about the new DRC constitution and how traditional practices conflict with the law. The chiefs worked together to address the conflicts near their villages, and formed strategies to transform the regional conflict and protect their villages. The chiefs took to this cooperative organization like fish to water, and saw a new way that was better for their communities. The chiefs chose to enforce the new law en mass, and they had a demonstration and march through the city to proclaim it so.

The tribal leaders now regularly network with HEAL Africa and with each other to serve and protect their people. Muliri works closely with the tribal leaders throughout the North Kivu and northern Maniema regions, and continues to hold conflict transformation seminars about legal issues and strategy to resolve long term conflicts; right now, they are implementing an intensive program to keep their youth out of the militas.

A few days ago, HEAL Africa USA learned that a chief from the Lubutu area collected eight new victims of sexual violence, six women and two men, and immediately notified HEAL Africa so they could be treated and transported to the hospital in Goma. That is a far cry from threatening counselors with rocks and machetes. HEAL Africa has a network of "safe houses" in the areas surrounding the war that provide support for the local communities. They are first-responders to victims of war violence; they educate people about HIV/AIDS, and administer immediate prophylactic care to rape victims before they are transported to the hospital. HEAL Africa works with their Nehemiah Committees, cooperative groups made up of respected Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Kimbunguist -- and now tribal -- leaders that are committed to changing the future of the DRC. Much grassroots work is done through these networks, and the "safe house" role is expanding with each collective success. HEAL Africa recently suffered from large funging cuts, and the grassroots programs were cut to skeleton crews on July 1 in order to keep the hospital open.

Help create conflict-free green technology.

Update: Judy Anderson is currently Executive Director at ACT for Congo.

The Second Congo War, also called Africa's World War, killed 5 million people between 1998 and 2003. It was the largest war in Africa's history; it involved eight African nations and more than twenty armed militias. Although there was an agreement between the warring parties in 2003, the conflict continues in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It continues because of the metal mines that the armed groups fight to control.

There is an action item at the end of this diary that will certainly help save lives and impact suffering: The Senate Financial Overhaul Bill contains a provision that requires companies that use targeted metals to annually report where they buy them. The House Financial Services Committee is reviewing the Senate bill during the next two weeks.

We need to preserve that provision as a necessary first step in conflict relief. These metals are used in clean energy and green technology, as well as medicine and industry in the US across the board. Accountability is key to resolving this war.

The interview below is with Judy Anderson, Executive Director of HEAL Africa USA. HEAL Africa is an organization that helps victims of sexual violence in eastern DRC. Brutal militias use systematic rape and torture as weapons of war, and those who survive these attacks are usually left totally incontinent because they suffer from traumatic gynecologic fistula -- destruction of the tissue between the vagina, bladder, and bowels. These injuries are often the point of the attack. Militias commonly use weapons to rape, mutilate, and leave women for dead.

HEAL Africa has a state of the art hospital that specializes in treating these injuries, as well as other common wounds of this war. The UN reports tens of thousands of these rapes take place per year, and that is since the war officially ended in 2003.



Judy is talking about coltan, the ore that contains tantalum. "Congo is in your cellphone," is a meme. It's true, too. But tantalum is everywhere -- it isn't just in your computer and cellphone. From an engineering perspective, tantalum is a sweetheart metal. It has ideal mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties for applications throughout industry. It can be heated to very high temperatures, it is stable in corrosive environments, and it machines well. And it maintains these properties after heating; tungsten, for example, becomes extremely brittle and fragile once it's heated. This is not so with tantalum, which is easily re-machined after heating to high temperatures. Alloys of tantalum behave nicely, as well.

Camera lenses are made with tantalum oxide. Tantalum metal is ideal for making surgical implants and instruments -- it even bonds with hard tissue better than other metals. It is ductile and supple and it is the metal of choice for fine wires and long-lasting filaments. Its alloys are used in jet engines, missiles, and process equipment for engineering across the board. Our technology makes us dependent on coltan, and it comes from the mines that draw the militia groups to fight this war.

Ngalula was one of the first women treated at the HEAL Africa hospital. A militia destroyed her village, killed her family, kidnapped and kept her as a sex slave. She was only sixteen. After a year and a half in their grasp, she escaped and made her way for help. She was filled with fistulae but also pregnant, so she had to wait until after the baby's birth to have surgery.

In the DRC, abortion is illegal in every context. It is strenuously forbidden by law.



The Congolese people are of strong faith, so HEAL Africa works directly with the faith-based leaders. Catholic, Protestant, Kimbanguist, Muslum, and local tribal leaders help them to affect change. The Nehemiah Committees that are central to changing the face Congo are made up of these leaders.

Mama Muliri is at the heart of this work. She pioneered HEAL Africa's Heal My People program and is a founding member of their Women Stand Up Together program. She was one of the first to stand up to the men who hold power in the DRC and demand a better way for the women who suffer.

The first time Mama Muliri stood in front of the tribal leaders, they met her fully painted, brandishing spears and guns. She stood her ground and demanded change for the women who suffer. After four days of meetings, the political and tribal leaders understood the law and what HEAL Africa was trying to do, and they agreed to stand up with Muliri. Today these leaders give support to the rape victims from their villages.




This war will not end unless we address the corrupt mining operations in east Africa. The action we take must be on two fronts -- we need to stop using buying material that supports this conflict, and we need to be sure that civilians can keep life going when the mines get pinched.

Another important step is to learn about microcredit programs, and support them if you can; Half the Sky Movement has a primer that includes information about how to know that your aid gets properly used.

Your cellphone is killing people: Regulate conflict minerals in the DRC

In 1994, a Hutu paramilitary organization called the Interahamwe perpetrated a mass genocide in Rwanda against another ethnic group, the Tutsi. In response, the Rwandese Patriotic Front eventually drove the Interahamwe, their supporters, and the Hutu who feared retaliation from Rwanda into nearby countries: over two million people crossed the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Interahamwe remain in the Democratic Republic of Congo today. They now call themselves the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda, or the FDLR. They compete with other groups to control the Coltan mines in the DRC, but they set the bloody standard for terrorism in the neighborhood.

The violence connected with these mines is absolutely monstrous. The militias use terrorism to intimidate the people, and the most brutal are the ones who gain control of the ore that comes from the mines. But the weapons of terror are not car bombs or explosive devices. They use public torture and rape to intimidate the Congolese people. Nicholas Kristof recently described the horrible conditions that result in his columns The World Capital of Killing, and From "Oprah" to Building Sisterhood in Congo.

More than two hundred thousand Congolese women and children have been raped and mutilated, often in front of their families or in front of the whole village -- and this has been going on for years. Among the stories that the UN reported in 2005, paramilitary men grilled villagers' bodies on a spit and boiled two girls alive in front of their mother. More often they gang rape a woman, penetrating her with weapons and mutilating her. Sometimes they use machetes or guns, and they are reported to set her on fire, as well. Those who survive are often left entirely incontinent because they suffer from traumatic gynecologic fistula -- destruction of the tissue between the vagina, bladder, and bowels. The UN reports tens of thousands of these rapes per year. There is an increasing number of men who suffer this fate, as well.

Jeanette and her husband were farmers when the Interahamwe stormed into their village and burned it to the ground. They raped and tortured her, cut off both of her hands, and left her for dead. They raped another woman in the village who was pregnant, penetrated her with a rifle, and shot her.

The Interahamwe killed Generose's husband, hacked off her leg with a machete, and cooked it in front of her family on their kitchen fire. When her 12-year-old son refused to eat it, they killed him.

The violence continues, and stories like these play out daily in eastern DRC. The causes for the conflict in the DRC are complicated, but one thing is simple: the suffering continues because of the mines. Militias directly control the region's coltan and tin production. At the end of 2007, the International Rescue Committee estimated that nearly 5.5 million people had died, and that number continues to rise.





I want to draw your attention to coltan, which is the ore that contains tantalum. From an engineering perspective, tantalum is a sweetheart metal. It has ideal mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. It can be heated to very high temperatures, it is stable in corrosive environments, and it machines well. It also maintains these properties after heating; tungsten, for example, becomes extremely brittle and fragile once it's heated, which is why incandescent light bulb filaments break so easily. This is not so with tantalum, which can be re-machined after heating to high temperatures. Alloys of tantalum behave nicely, as well.

The video refers to widespread use of tantalum capacitors, but because of its favorable properties tantalum is commonly used in industry. Camera lenses are made with tantalum oxide. Tantalum metal is ideal for making surgical implants and instruments -- it even bonds with hard tissue better than other metals. Its ductility and suppleness make it the metal of choice for fine wires and long-lasting filaments, and its alloys are used in jet engines, missiles, and process equipment for engineering across the board. Our technology makes us dependent on this precious metal.

** Jeanette and Generose's stories are told by Women for Women International, another organization that is doing fine work to support war survivors in the DRC. Read about Jeanette in The Other Side of War by Zainab Salbi; Nicholas Kristof tells Generose's story in the links provided.

Silence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Update: Mama Muliri currently collaborates with HOLD-DRC. HOLD (Humanitarian Organization for Lasting Development) is a Congolese NGO. They are founding partners with US-based ACT for Congo.

Meet Jeanne Muliri Kabekatyo, known as "Mama Muliri" to her friends and colleagues. This brilliant woman pioneered the Heal My People program at HEAL Africa, a Congolese relief organization centered in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. She is visiting the United States and telling the story of how HEAL Africa is changing the face of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is without a doubt one of the more inspiring people I know.

Mama Muliri directs HEAL Africa's program Gender and Justice, which is a strategic, long term response to gender-based violence. She is the ultimate community organizer, bringing together leaders from area villages, faith-based organizations, and relief workers, and the women of the DRC to affect positive change in a lasting way. They will create a new future.


HEAL Africa began as a small clinic, but it was destroyed when Mount Nyiragongo erupted in 2002. They've since rebuilt, and are now a teaching hospital with a state of the art surgical center, specializing in traumatic gynecologic fistulae.
These injuries commonly result from the brutal rapes that happen because of the war. Women are attacked and raped sometimes by groups of twenty or more men. These men penetrate them with weapons and sometimes shoot, burn, or mutilate and then leave them for dead. HEAL Africa's hospital was designed to treat their wounds.

But when the hospital opened, the doctors couldn't find many rape victims. Only women who were dying of infection or gravely injured would come. HEAL Africa had an empty treatment facility in the middle of what is arguably the worst systematic, gender-based violence on Earth today.

The Democratic Republic of Congo lives a culture of silence. By the old ways, a woman who is raped is shunned by her family and cast out of her community. She has no worth in the world, and is utterly destroyed by the crime. If it happens and she can keep it secret, she will suffer in silence. This is why HEAL Africa and Mama Muliri are so important. The women don't easily trust, because the risk to their future is so great. Why should a woman go to a hospital for treatment when it means that she must break her silence?

Mama Muliri knew that the hospital would not be a safe place for the women who needed treatment unless the culture of silence was broken. To accomplish this change, she had to engage the men -- so she and her colleagues went to the religious leaders and convinced them to teach their people about the culture of silence and why it was wrong.

Then she and her colleagues went to the leaders in the villages and taught them how their ways conflicted with the law, and convinced them that their traditions regarding rape had to change. This tactic was hugely successful, and the villages began to comply with the law. The villages started to support the rape victims, and HEAL Africa trained village women in crisis counseling to help rape victims get the care they need. From this work came the Nehemiah Committees made up of Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and indigenous church and village leaders:

These initiatives took the name of “Nehemiah Committees”. In 2004, the first three committees were established, today there are more than 65 throughout rural villages in the surrounding region of Goma.
...
The name for the program derives from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, where a community is mobilized to rebuild the walls of their destroyed city. Nehemiah Committees are locally selected by community members and represent all faiths and tribes in the community. The various faith communities...are at the heart of the work and the focus of the training.

The women in these villages now have a safe place to break their silence.

But what would become of the women after their treatment? If they went back to their villages as victims, the culture of silence would persist. Mama Muliri thought that calling them survivors wouldn't work, either, as it did nothing to remove the stigma of being raped, and it was not a lot different than saying the women were victims. She and HEAL Africa started a vocational training program to give the women skills that their village depended on -- and she called the graduates Strong Women in the Community.

It didn't make sense, though, to allow only rape victims to be the Strong Women. First, a women who had not suffered a rape needed vocational training, too -- and second, creating Strong Women in a way that was independent of their trauma history helped to remove the stigma attached to the rape. Their rape wouldn't define them in their community. HEAL Africa opened their training program to all women, and gave birth to their Women Stand Up Together program.

Women Stand Up Together has a network of safe houses where women receive support in crisis, training, and resources they need. The village counselors can go to the safe houses to learn new skills, and the women can network to build a sustainable future for the DRC.

The safe houses also provide a way to administer or acquire urgent and preventive care for rape victims:

Village counselors also know to refer to local medical clinics for infections, sexually transmitted diseases, or Post Exposure Prophyllaxis (PEP for HIV will dramatically reduce transmission of HIV if administered within 72 hours of a rape. Most villagers don’t know this, and it’s not available in many clinics out of the city.) HEAL Africa has been working with 67 rural clinics to provide training and medicine, and through the counselor networks to inform women and girls of the urgency of getting treatment quickly.

Women Stand Up Together started with 4 safe houses; they now have 28, and they are making an enormous impact on the quality of life and status for women they serve. HEAL Africa also has a fledgling microcredit program that is about six months old. They've already paid back their principle and interest, and are using the profit that microcredit brings to provide more loans to women who want to start businesses.

And this is what sets HEAL Africa apart from other relief organizations working in the DRC. HEAL Africa is founded and led by Congolese people, so it can build itself and grow through community organization. Foreign relief agencies are helping tremendously in the DRC, but they are centrally located and cannot reach the villages with community networks like HEAL Africa. And they cannot build a lasting peace -- only the people of the DRC can create a peaceful future for their country.

This is Marta, and she wants us to hear her story. She was badly injured when she was raped and burned, and she made her way to the HEAL Africa hospital through the community networks described here. She was a resident at HEAL Africa's Grounds For Hope shelter that houses women who need time to heal because of their extensive injuries. To date, she has had five reconstructive surgeries to help her close her eye lids and regain balanced use of her arms.

She told her story to Ben Affleck in 2008 when he traveled to the DRC for ABC's Nightline -- her interview starts about 2:50 in this excerpt:



Update: Since this writing, HEAL Africa has discontinued its Women Stand Up Together programs and Nehemiah Committees.