Resurrection After Rape Community Group
Discussion, question-and-answer, general social support, and journal processing for progress-oriented rape survivors. No crisis, no damaging or triggering conflicts--this is for individuals who want to contribute to collective, cooperative action toward the goal of making actual PROGRESS through rape trauma. Much of this work is based on the book "Resurrection After...
I don't know if anyone else saw the 60 Minutes show tonight about rape in Congo (see: http://tinyurl.com/2ogl8s ). They estimated that 90% of women in some areas are rape survivors, mostly or gang rapes repeated daily for months. There is only one hospital, the Panzi Hospital in the Eastern region (the most dangerous area), one doctor, Denis Mukwege, and one women's group serving rape victims. Dr. Mukwege said, "I see women here who have simply stopped living." A majority of children in Congo now are born as a result of rape. Sadly, two countries most significantly involved in the conflict, Rwanda and Uganada, are both considered US Allies, and therefore the White House (current and previous) has been slow to respond at all, and even then only to respond with words and no intervention for the victims.
I'd like to start a program here to write letters of support and hope for the women in their hospital. The women's program offers surgical care, basic education and literacy, and fair-trade craftsmen training for the women.
We are talking about THOUSANDS of women, not a few. Would you like to help me start a program that extends overseas support to women in Congo? I already have the contact information; it's simply a matter of organizing the effort now. We could start with letter writing. I could send them to Dr. Mukwege himself, or to the international women's program ("Women for Women") to distribute. Dr. Mukwege is the only male these women trust.
There are also 5k runs for Congolese women to raise funds (Lucinda, our celebrity runner, this is your area!), so I'd love to see a "Resurrection After Rape" run/walk here, or even in your local communities, that we could participate in. If enough women on RAR are interested, I'd consider looking into the way to organize a very simply 5k event here; I have contact/training materials for that as well.
You can also donate to the Panzi hospital directly at http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/panzi.htm or https://secure.ga4.org/01/drcongo
I'd like to start a program here to write letters of support and hope for the women in their hospital. The women's program offers surgical care, basic education and literacy, and fair-trade craftsmen training for the women.
We are talking about THOUSANDS of women, not a few. Would you like to help me start a program that extends overseas support to women in Congo? I already have the contact information; it's simply a matter of organizing the effort now. We could start with letter writing. I could send them to Dr. Mukwege himself, or to the international women's program ("Women for Women") to distribute. Dr. Mukwege is the only male these women trust.
There are also 5k runs for Congolese women to raise funds (Lucinda, our celebrity runner, this is your area!), so I'd love to see a "Resurrection After Rape" run/walk here, or even in your local communities, that we could participate in. If enough women on RAR are interested, I'd consider looking into the way to organize a very simply 5k event here; I have contact/training materials for that as well.
You can also donate to the Panzi hospital directly at http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/panzi.htm or https://secure.ga4.org/01/drcongo
I will write as many letters as necessary and if I could get to OKC I'd participate in the walk as well. Please keep us updated on details.
AWESOME IDEA MATT!!
These women NEED our support.
And I won't feel a bit guilty about anything going on anywhere in the world, or guilty for eating a steak, or guilty for buying art that cost too much--because this is OUR time, and we spend the rest of our year trying to heal the whole damned world. We need a break. My shoulders and neck hurt, and my wife says "well, quite carrying the weight of the world on them!" and she's right.
So here's my idea for Congo. Let me contact Dr. Mukwege and ask him if this would be a helpful, or wasted, project. If he says his patients need this kind of support--and I'd be stunned if he declined--I'll set up a P.O. box and collect letters. I'll scan them and send the originals to him. He speaks English, and so do the aid workers, so they can take up the letters at that point. What he really needs, of course, is funding--I'll leave that up to each of you to do individually. But if anyone will buy gift items from my "Survivors Shop" at http://www.cafepress.com/resafterrape I'll split the proceeds and send funds to his hospital.
I tried the link to the run/walk organizer since the one in November in Atlanta is one I could actually get to. I got an error message after I typed this really nice message.....(long), so, I tried to send it with nothing as a message and just see if it worked, another error message.
Has anyone else tried? Did the link to the woman organizing the runs work for you?