Women left for dead—and the man who’s saving them

[Guest guest]

http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/08/reallifedrama

Women left for dead—and the man who's saving them

In the Congo, where tens of thousands of women are brutally raped every

year, Dr. Denis Mukwege repairs their broken bodies and souls. Eve Ensler,

author of The Vagina Monologues, visits him and finds hope amid the horror.

By Eve Ensler

I have just returned from hell. I am trying for the life of me to figure out

how to communicate what I have seen and heard in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. How do I convey these stories of atrocities without your shutting down,

quickly turning the page or feeling too disturbed?

How do I tell you of girls as young as nine raped by gangs of soldiers, of

women whose insides were blown apart by rifle blasts and whose bodies now leak

uncontrollable streams of urine and feces?

How you can help

The women of Eastern Congo, V-Day and UNICEF—the latter acting on behalf of

United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict—are launching a new

campaign to urge an end to the femicide and raise money for women's groups in

the Congo. You can…

 

Write a letter addressed to

His Excellency, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

Joseph Kabila Kabange; demand that he take action to stop the attacks on

women. Send it to U.N. Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, P.O.

Box 3862, New York, NY 10163, and it will be delivered to Kabila.Donate directly to Panzi

Hospital through vday.org.

 

Money donated to Panzi also goes to establish a City of Joy, a safe haven

for the healed women, where they'll learn to become political leaders.

This journey was a departure for me. It began with a man, Dr. Denis Mukwege,

and a conversation we had in New York City in December 2006, when he came to

speak about his work helping women at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. It began with

my rusty French and his limited English. It began with the quiet anguish in his

bloodshot eyes, eyes that seemed to me to be bleeding from the horrors he'd

witnessed.

Something happened in this conversation that compelled me to go halfway

around the world to visit the doctor, this holy man who was sewing up women as

fast as the mad militiamen could rip them apart.

I am going to tell the stories of the patients he saves so that the

faceless, generic, raped women of war become Alfonsine and Nadine—women with

names and memories and dreams. I am going to ask you to stay with me, to open

your hearts, to be as outraged and nauseated as I felt sitting in Panzi

Hospital in faraway Bukavu.

To read the rest of the story & how you can help - go to

the web page – Hawk

 

 

 

 

Radiating

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE & Truth

To ALL who share our circle, our

universe, our love, our trust.

May

I always be found worthy.

Gratitude

& Thankfulness to All of Us

aSoaringHawk

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the

first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with joy &

glory.

Thank you for YOU, ALL!