2011 - A Year of Optimism and Continued Growth

Local residents walk to Mumosho Peace Market, a project completed in July by Empower Congo Women.

Empower Congo Women initiated and completed several successful projects this year, all of which empowered women and girls while rebuilding community in eastern DRC. Still a small grassroots organization, ECW relies on your donations to continue to do good work for the beleaguered people of Congo.

HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE:  http://empowercongowomen.org/donate.php  

Ushindi Center's First Graduation Ceremony

Young woman graduate with her new sewing machine.

 This past July, 20 women war survivors and 10 at-risk young women graduated from Ushindi Center’s vocational training program. All had completed the graduation requirements for sewing certification, and most received a graduation kit consisting of a sewing machine, fabric and notions to start them on the road to self-reliance. Women with other vocational skills were given the equivalent in cash to start their own business.

The Graduation Ceremony was attended by Rotary Club of Bukavu members, friends of graduates, and local dignitaries, including police-woman Colonel Honorine, head of Women’s Protection Unit in Bukavu.

UC Administrator Chantal Kikuni and I hand out graduation certificates.

   

Congratulatory speeches were made, and each woman received a Certificate of Completion for her achievement. A delicious buffet was served and people danced to Bashi music.

Please contribute here so that Ushindi Center can continue to empower women through vocational skills training, trauma healing and leadership development. 

DONATE NOW! http://empowercongowomen.org/donate.php  

Mumosho Peace Market

Mumosho Peace Market prior to completion

Working in conjunction with ABFEK and Action Kivu, both community-based charities in eastern DRC, Empower Congo Women raised funds from five International Rotary Clubs (Montecito, Santa Maria, Wakefield,  Ottawa, Korea) and Falling Whistles, and LA-based NGO, to sponsor construction of a large, pavilion-style market in Mumosho. 

Market construction was overseen by Project Manager, Amani Matabaro, who finished the project on time and on budget, an unusual feat in any country! He was given timely advice by Mark Magid, Montecito Rotary's International Service Chair, who traveled to DRC to contribute his expertise as a building contractor.

Amani, Roger, Pamphil and Mark at construction site

 The market measures 80’ by 30’ and houses 100 vendors, including butchers whose stalls and knives are kept at a distance. A latrine project was later completed to maintain healthy sanitation in the area, the majority of funds being donated by actress Robin Wright.

Mumosho’s strategic location on the Ruzizi River border of DRC and Rwanda makes it an ideal place to rebuild peaceful trade relations between the two countries. It is estimated that over 30,000 people will benefit from the market being in the area.

Chief Didier Kagizi cuts the ribbon to open the market.

Construction of the market in July has already brought economic improvement to the area. Women vendors are benefiting in particular, because, with the completion of adjacent storage buildings, they no longer have to carry back-breaking loads to and from market. Buyers as well as sellers benefit, because protection from the torrential rain allows the market to stay open all year long.

Rotary Grants

Rotary International issued two grants this year to benefit projects initiated by Empower Congo Women in eastern DRC. Rotary Club of Montecito sponsored both grants, and Rotary Club of Bukavu was the Host Partner who oversaw the funding process.

Ushindi Center was recipient of a grant that furnished it with sewing equipment, funded its sewing teachers and trainers for a year, sent Ushindi children to school, and paid training costs for the women to become certified trauma healers.

A groupment of villages in Mumosho received the second grant, which established a Demonstration Farm for sustainable agriculture practices and improved animal husbandry by purchasing goats and other small animals, animal feed, inoculations, seeds, and farm equipment. This grant also provided a women’s collective with sewing equipment and paid exit exam fees for girls and orphans who would otherwise be unable to begin secondary school in the fall.

Ushindi Center Exports Products for Sale in USA

Ushindi women assemble patchwork aprons.

The first shipment of aprons made by women and girls at the Ushindi vocational center was received in Santa Barbara, USA in October. The aprons are made of a patchwork of beautiful African fabrics, all hand sewn, lined and fully washable. A second shipment was received in December, just in time for Christmas gifts, this batch featuring child-sized aprons and matching child/parent sets. 

Aprons made from gorgeous fabric like this will be posted for sale on the ECW website in mid-January, so check our website often so you don't miss out! Also, get ready for our clothing line, which will premier this spring.

http://empowercongowomen.org 

Ushindi Center's First Graduation

Last Saturday on July 2nd, thirty women and girls graduated from Ushindi Center's vocational program in Bukavu, DRC. Twenty of the women were survivors of sexual violence; they had received training in sewing and soap making and education in legal rights and family planning, and they had their medical care and children's school fees paid for a two year period. Ten younger women graduated after a one year course in sewing and dressmaking.

Each graduate received a "Business Kit" to enable her to become self-sufficient. The kit consists of a treadle sewing machine with stand, fabric, scissors, thread and oil to keep the machine working well.

Because the training program was a joint project of Rotary Clubs of Montecito and Bukavu, RCOB President (2011-2010) Eilisee Mudwanga was on hand to congratulate the graduates.

The Rotaract Club of Ventura and Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club were responsible for donating many of the Business Kits. Thanks you guys for all your hard work-- you've given hope to a lot of people!

Everyone danced and we had great time,

including Courtlin Stoker and Mark Magid, Rotary friends from Santa Barbara, U.S.A.

Many thanks go to my translator, Roger Buhendwa, who arranged the party and media coverage, and to Chantal Kikuni, Ushindi Center Administrator.  You are the best!

A big commitment, lots learned the hard way, but in the end, Ushindi Center rocks!

The New York Times May 11, 2011 Congo Study Sets Estimate for Rapes Much Higher By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN A new study in The American Journal of Public Health, expected to be published Thursday online, estimates that nearly two million women have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with women victimized at a rate of nearly one every minute. The study, one of the first comprehensive looks at the prevalence of rape in Congo, indicates that the problem is much bigger and more pervasive than previously thought. Women have reported alarming levels of sexual abuse in the capital and in provinces far from Congo’s war-torn east, a sign that the problem extends beyond the nation’s primary conflict zone. “Not only is sexual violence more generalized,” the study said, “but our findings suggest that future policies and programs should focus on abuse within families.” For the past 15 years, Congo has been racked by myriad rebel groups that terrorize civilians, particularly in the east, often to exploit the country’s mineral riches or to flaunt their abusive power. United Nations officials have called Congo the epicenter of rape as a weapon of war, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited rape victims in eastern Congo in 2009 in an effort to draw more attention to one of Africa’s most intractable and disturbing conflicts. Still, comprehensive statistics have been hard to come by. Many areas of Congo are inaccessible — cut off by thick forests and warring groups — and many victims have been too frightened to speak out. The central government is also weak, which has exacerbated the violence and made it difficult to collect information. The conclusions in the new study, by three public health researchers — Amber Peterman of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Tia Palermo of Stony Brook University and Caryn Bredenkamp of the World Bank — are based on extrapolations from a household survey done in 2007 of 3,436 Congolese women nationwide. The researchers found that around 12 percent were raped at least once in their lifetime and 3 percent were raped in the one-year period before the survey. Around 22 percent had been forced by their partners to have sex or perform sexual acts against their will, the study showed, implying that sexual abuse often happened at home. The women, ages 15 to 49, were interviewed in a demographic and health survey partly financed by the American government. The study’s authors then used current population estimates, which put Congo’s population at around 70 million, to extrapolate that as many as 1.8 million Congolese women had been raped, with up to 433,785 raped in the one-year period, which would mean almost a rape a minute. Congo has been the subject of sweeping studies before, including some by the International Rescue Committee, a private aid organization, which has estimated that Congo’s civil war has claimed more lives than any other conflict since World War II. Some scientists have criticized those studies as being too reliant on projections and not grounded enough in hard facts. Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which has sent doctors to Congo to treat rape victims, said that there were “some limitations in the methodology, such as the sampling methods and the sample sizes” of the new rape study. But he argued that “the important message remains: that rape and sexual slavery have become amazingly commonplace in this region of the D.R.C., and have defined this conflict as a war against women.” The study’s authors believe the rape problem may be worse than their study suggests. The findings are based on survey results from females of reproductive age, but many reports and witness accounts have shown that armed men often gang-rape young girls — some even toddlers — and women in their 70s and older, in addition to a growing number of men and boys. Also, many rape victims never report being assaulted because of the shame and stigma. In Congo, countless women have been abandoned by their husbands after being raped. “There are two big surprises in the study,” said Anthony Gambino, mission director for Congo of the United States Agency for International Development in 2001-4. “First, the magnitude of the problem — rates of rape that are much higher than seen elsewhere. And, second, that these alarming, shockingly high rape statistics are found in western Congo as well as northern and eastern Congo.” Scientists and aid workers have struggled to pinpoint exactly why so many women are raped in Congo. Mr. Gambino says it may be related to nearly 40 years of “steady economic and political decline,” which has meant that the government’s presence has essentially disappeared from many areas of Congo.

Shocking Finding: One woman raped nearly every minute in DRC

The New York Times

May 11, 2011

Congo Study Sets Estimate for Rapes Much Higher

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

A new study in The American Journal of Public Health, expected to be published Thursday online, estimates that nearly two million women have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with women victimized at a rate of nearly one every minute.
The study, one of the first comprehensive looks at the prevalence of rape in Congo, indicates that the problem is much bigger and more pervasive than previously thought. Women have reported alarming levels of sexual abuse in the capital and in provinces far from Congo’s war-torn east, a sign that the problem extends beyond the nation’s primary conflict zone.
“Not only is sexual violence more generalized,” the study said, “but our findings suggest that future policies and programs should focus on abuse within families.”
For the past 15 years, Congo has been racked by myriad rebel groups that terrorize civilians, particularly in the east, often to exploit the country’s mineral riches or to flaunt their abusive power. United Nations officials have called Congo the epicenter of rape as a weapon of war, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited rape victims in eastern Congo in 2009 in an effort to draw more attention to one of Africa’s most intractable and disturbing conflicts.
Still, comprehensive statistics have been hard to come by. Many areas of Congo are inaccessible — cut off by thick forests and warring groups — and many victims have been too frightened to speak out. The central government is also weak, which has exacerbated the violence and made it difficult to collect information.
The conclusions in the new study, by three public health researchers — Amber Peterman of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Tia Palermo of Stony Brook University and Caryn Bredenkamp of the World Bank — are based on extrapolations from a household survey done in 2007 of 3,436 Congolese women nationwide.
The researchers found that around 12 percent were raped at least once in their lifetime and 3 percent were raped in the one-year period before the survey. Around 22 percent had been forced by their partners to have sex or perform sexual acts against their will, the study showed, implying that sexual abuse often happened at home. The women, ages 15 to 49, were interviewed in a demographic and health survey partly financed by the American government.
The study’s authors then used current population estimates, which put Congo’s population at around 70 million, to extrapolate that as many as 1.8 million Congolese women had been raped, with up to 433,785 raped in the one-year period, which would mean almost a rape a minute.
Congo has been the subject of sweeping studies before, including some by the International Rescue Committee, a private aid organization, which has estimated that Congo’s civil war has claimed more lives than any other conflict since World War II. Some scientists have criticized those studies as being too reliant on projections and not grounded enough in hard facts.
Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which has sent doctors to Congo to treat rape victims, said that there were “some limitations in the methodology, such as the sampling methods and the sample sizes” of the new rape study. But he argued that “the important message remains: that rape and sexual slavery have become amazingly commonplace in this region of the D.R.C., and have defined this conflict as a war against women.”
The study’s authors believe the rape problem may be worse than their study suggests. The findings are based on survey results from females of reproductive age, but many reports and witness accounts have shown that armed men often gang-rape young girls — some even toddlers — and women in their 70s and older, in addition to a growing number of men and boys. Also, many rape victims never report being assaulted because of the shame and stigma. In Congo, countless women have been abandoned by their husbands after being raped.
“There are two big surprises in the study,” said Anthony Gambino, mission director for Congo of the United States Agency for International Development in 2001-4. “First, the magnitude of the problem — rates of rape that are much higher than seen elsewhere. And, second, that these alarming, shockingly high rape statistics are found in western Congo as well as northern and eastern Congo.”
Scientists and aid workers have struggled to pinpoint exactly why so many women are raped in Congo. Mr. Gambino says it may be related to nearly 40 years of “steady economic and political decline,” which has meant that the government’s presence has essentially disappeared from many areas of Congo.

The New York Times May 11, 2011 Congo Study Sets Estimate for Rapes Much Higher By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN A new study in The American Journal of Public Health, expected to be published Thursday online, estimates that nearly two million women have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with women victimized at a rate of nearly one every minute. The study, one of the first comprehensive looks at the prevalence of rape in Congo, indicates that the problem is much bigger and more pervasive than previously thought. Women have reported alarming levels of sexual abuse in the capital and in provinces far from Congo’s war-torn east, a sign that the problem extends beyond the nation’s primary conflict zone. “Not only is sexual violence more generalized,” the study said, “but our findings suggest that future policies and programs should focus on abuse within families.” For the past 15 years, Congo has been racked by myriad rebel groups that terrorize civilians, particularly in the east, often to exploit the country’s mineral riches or to flaunt their abusive power. United Nations officials have called Congo the epicenter of rape as a weapon of war, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited rape victims in eastern Congo in 2009 in an effort to draw more attention to one of Africa’s most intractable and disturbing conflicts. Still, comprehensive statistics have been hard to come by. Many areas of Congo are inaccessible — cut off by thick forests and warring groups — and many victims have been too frightened to speak out. The central government is also weak, which has exacerbated the violence and made it difficult to collect information. The conclusions in the new study, by three public health researchers — Amber Peterman of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Tia Palermo of Stony Brook University and Caryn Bredenkamp of the World Bank — are based on extrapolations from a household survey done in 2007 of 3,436 Congolese women nationwide. The researchers found that around 12 percent were raped at least once in their lifetime and 3 percent were raped in the one-year period before the survey. Around 22 percent had been forced by their partners to have sex or perform sexual acts against their will, the study showed, implying that sexual abuse often happened at home. The women, ages 15 to 49, were interviewed in a demographic and health survey partly financed by the American government. The study’s authors then used current population estimates, which put Congo’s population at around 70 million, to extrapolate that as many as 1.8 million Congolese women had been raped, with up to 433,785 raped in the one-year period, which would mean almost a rape a minute. Congo has been the subject of sweeping studies before, including some by the International Rescue Committee, a private aid organization, which has estimated that Congo’s civil war has claimed more lives than any other conflict since World War II. Some scientists have criticized those studies as being too reliant on projections and not grounded enough in hard facts. Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which has sent doctors to Congo to treat rape victims, said that there were “some limitations in the methodology, such as the sampling methods and the sample sizes” of the new rape study. But he argued that “the important message remains: that rape and sexual slavery have become amazingly commonplace in this region of the D.R.C., and have defined this conflict as a war against women.” The study’s authors believe the rape problem may be worse than their study suggests. The findings are based on survey results from females of reproductive age, but many reports and witness accounts have shown that armed men often gang-rape young girls — some even toddlers — and women in their 70s and older, in addition to a growing number of men and boys. Also, many rape victims never report being assaulted because of the shame and stigma. In Congo, countless women have been abandoned by their husbands after being raped. “There are two big surprises in the study,” said Anthony Gambino, mission director for Congo of the United States Agency for International Development in 2001-4. “First, the magnitude of the problem — rates of rape that are much higher than seen elsewhere. And, second, that these alarming, shockingly high rape statistics are found in western Congo as well as northern and eastern Congo.” Scientists and aid workers have struggled to pinpoint exactly why so many women are raped in Congo. Mr. Gambino says it may be related to nearly 40 years of “steady economic and political decline,” which has meant that the government’s presence has essentially disappeared from many areas of Congo.