Support in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

medica mondiale is currently expanding its co-operation with the Congolese partner organisation PAIF (Promotion et appui aux initiatives féminines). Still today, women and girls become victims of rape and severe violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The political situation remains insecure despite the peace agreement reached in 2002 and the first democratically elected Government headed by Joseph Kabila. Particularly in the regions of crisis, the provinces North Kivu and South Kivu, acts of violence against women and girls are a daily occurrence. Thousands of women are waiting for help and assistance.

medica mondiale has been supporting the Congolese women’s rights organisation PAIF since 2004. PAIF is one of the few aid organisations providing support and assistance to women and girls who have become victims of rape in the Kivu provinces. The project is partially funded with the help of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ). The new co-operation project provides access to medical and psychosocial care and socio-economic support for approx. 800 women in Goma and Kalehe. In view of the ongoing violence in the eastern part of the Congo, medica mondiale and PAIF furthermore co-operate to publicise information on the cause, the dimension and the impact of violence against women and to raise public awareness through lobbying campaigns.

The construction of the new project centre to combat violence against women in Goma, the capital of the province North Kivu, represents the mainstay of the co-operation project. The PAIF project centre that was largely destroyed due to a volcanic eruption in 2002 will be reconstructed. Until today, the funds for reconstruction were missing. The new centre is going to be the central point of contact for girls and women and will provide direct and comprehensive support and assistance. Child care services will be offered so that women can benefit from counselling services and participate in support groups and training courses. The inauguration of the project centre is planned to take place at the end 2008.

In the eastern provinces of the Congo, it is particularly difficult to gain access to medical facilities and social advice and information centres. In addition, hardly any of the women are in a position to pay the fees for medical treatment and drugs. As a consequence of brutish rapes and the lack of medical treatment of the resulting injuries, many women suffer from internal injuries, infections of the urinal tracts or the sexual organs, uterine prolapses and pelvic fractures, fistula formation and incontinence. Moreover, many women are infected with HIV/AIDS. Members of PAIF therefore focus on primary medical care for the often severely injured girls and women. Depending on the severity of the injury, the women are being treated directly by members of PAIF or referred to the regional hospital in Katana for further treatment. At PAIF, medical care is combined with health and sexual education to improve women’s overall health.

Another focus of PAIF is psychosocial care and the stabilisation of severely traumatised women. The demand for psychosocial counselling is high: The women and girls suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, feelings of shame, depressions and psychosomatic problems. PAIF provides psychosocial care to approximately 800 women as part of the co-operation project between PAIF and medica mondiale. The female counsellors of PAIF provide support and assistance in one-to-one interviews and group discussions and present coping strategies. The counsellors also organise support groups, empowering women to accept and support each other. In 2004, PAIF and medica mondiale founded the first support group named ”Faraja“ in Kalehe, South Kivu. “Faraja” means comfort and represents a way to bring group members out of isolation. In the group, women meet other survivors of violence, lend support to each other and gain new courage. Following the model of “Faraja“, more women are being encouraged to build up further support groups.

As part of the psychosocial work, women are encouraged to participate in training courses and socioeconomic activities. Many of the survivors of sexualised violence live in extreme poverty.  Those who were abandoned by their husbands and cast out from their community have to support themselves and their children. In training courses, they learn how to make a living by running a small retail business for maize meal, sugar, beans, soap or second hand clothing on local markets. Other women learn how to sew or to make juice or pastries to earn enough money to cover their basic needs such as food or clothes. Women from rural areas who worked in agriculture before and during the civil wars will be given seeds or goats as a jumpstart to ensure their basic provisions and self-supply. In addition, PAIF offers literacy courses for all women, since the ability to read and write is an important key to be able to participate in the local economy. To experience their own business skills encourages women’s self-assurance, increases their role within their communities and helps them to build up hope and develop perspectives for their future – key aspects for a fresh start.

Apart from the direct and individual support and assistance offered by PAIF, the organisation also aims at preventing the social exclusion of women. Most women are blamed to be responsible for the crimes they have fallen victim to and face rejection from their families and communities. PAIF launches campaigns to raise public awareness and acts as a mediator between women, family members and husbands. The aim is to develop joint solutions with all parties involved and to pave the way for rejected women to return to their families by mutual agreement.
To make society and political stakeholders more sensitive to the situation of raped women and to avoid that these women fall victim to new violence, PAIF keeps a record of cases of sexualised violence. Furthermore, the organisation fights for the rights of survivors by organising public awareness campaigns.