[Translate to English:]

 

Unfortunately, the living conditions in areas of war and conflict and in post-war societies are usually characterised by existential need and by continued danger for women. Furthermore, many survivors try to hide the fact that they have been raped, because they are afraid of being stigmatised or in the worst case, of being rejected or killed by their family.

Also, they meet people in clinics, refugee camps or from aid organisations who are usually totally unprepared to deal with their problems. For these reasons, the women are often isolated and on their own with their situation and do not receive the necessary and often life-saving support. In the worst case, insensitive and wrong treatment can lead to a retraumatization and to new injuries.

Whether or not traumatic experiences actually lead to chronic and stress related illnesses depends significantly on how they are viewed individually an in society. War heroes with their visible injuries are appreciated and admired by the population whereas raped women are treated as a dirty secret. This is an additional humiliation that impedes a “healthy” recovery.

That is why it is important for medica mondiale to combine the direct support of affected women through trauma work with the training and sensitisation of experts and with human rights work and education for the public.