Furaha, 35, was raped by two men while gathering firewood outside of the Bulengo camp in eastern Congo.
Photo ©2008 Stephen Matthews/World Vision

The customary changed names and hidden-identity photos wouldn't cut it for this article. Instead, these brave women insisted on using their real names and showing their faces. It was as though they saw this interview request as their only chance to tell their stories to someone from the outside world.

While these interviews took place at the Bulengo camp for displaced people in eastern DRC in June 2008, these rapes were not isolated events; they are merely representative of a practice that has become alarmingly common. World Vision surveys done earlier this year suggest that 60 to 65 percent of women in camps and villages are subject to sexual assault. In the Bulengo camp, where 21,000 people were living in June, the ratio is believed to be much higher.

"It's hard to say definitively how much rape is actually taking place, as there is no diagnostic capacity in the camps," said Jacalyn Griffin, a Lutheran minister working for CARITAS in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. "Rape has become a tool to demoralize the people and effectively taint the natural reproductive cycle with a confused lineage in the population." While soldiers use rape as a weapon of war, the practice is also growing among civilian men in this culture where men often view women as less valuable than their cows.

Violence in the DRC has increased in recent weeks, further escalating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Hundreds of thousands of Congolese people are fleeing the fighting, carrying their possessions from camp to camp. A World Vision assessment team visited the Bulengo camp on Nov. 5 and found that cases of rape were rampant. The women and girls are especially vulnerable when they go outside the camp to look for firewood, much like Furaha.

Furaha, 35

Help World Vision deliver emergency relief to those who have been displaced by the ongoing fighting in eastern Congo, including women and children whose safety is in jeopardy.

Furaha lives with her three children in the Bulengo camp. Her husband is still alive, and he visits the family at the camp sometimes. Furaha was raped just outside the camp after she arrived in March 2008. This is her story:

"I was gathering firewood in the afternoon when I was raped. I was three months pregnant at the time. There were two men. I tried to run, but I fell down. When I fell down, the two men come on me, one after another.

I was near the camp, in the bush not far from the camp. One of the men was holding a gun. I could not tell if they were soldiers. I tried to cry out. I screamed, but the other women who were with me ran away.

When I finally came out of the bush I was bleeding. I knew that something like this could happen, but I never expected it. I never thought it was going to happen to me.

I did not report it at the time. I did not seek medical help. I went to my bed and tried to sleep, but the bed was becoming covered in blood. In the night I went to the doctors and they helped me.

They [the rapists] did not beat me, but what they did was enough I think. I don’t know why they did this. I don’t know the reason they came to me.

We aren’t sure of what has happened to us. The way we are living [in the camps] now is not what we expected. I was just going to look for small firewood to try to cook something small for my children and this is how it happened. It is horrible for me, but I can’t do anything. Life was better before because we could go to our fields and we could harvest and have food to eat and even some to sell, but now everything is destroyed."

Mujawimana, 40

A mother of five, Mujawimana's husband was killed during a war-related conflict. She and her children have been living in the Bulengo camp since August 2007. This is her story:

Mujawimana was raped when she returned to her village to find her children after being forced to flee from fighting there.
Photo ©2008 Stephen Matthews/World Vision

"I came to this place after I was forced to flee from my village under gunfire. When I returned to my village to find my children I was taken by a man by force. He raped me and I became pregnant. This happened early in the new year [2008]. The baby is inside of my belly now.

He [the man who raped me] was not wearing a military uniform. I don't know if he was a soldier. He did not have a gun. I did not try to fight him off. I was too weak. He said to me, 'I like you, I love you, I want you to become my wife.' But I had never seen him before.

Other women in the camp talk about being taken by force in the wooded areas by unknown men. Yes, we do talk about it in this camp, but talking does not protect us.

[Since the rape], I no longer go into the bush. I don't walk outside of the camp. I spend most of my time in my home. I am not strong enough to walk in the bush anyway.

What I want to say to everyone is that I need help. I don't have a husband. My children are sick. What I want to say is, how can I get help from anyone?"

Mutari, 35

A militia group came to Mutari's village, kidnapped her husband and son, and raped her and her 14-year-old daughter, who became pregnant.
Photo ©2008 Stephen Matthews/World Vision

"One of the militia groups came to our village. They took my husband and son.

They came back and took my 14-year-old daughter to the bush where they raped her. They came back to me. I was lying in the bed because I was sick, but they raped me the same as my daughter. My daughter is pregnant from these men.

I could not fight them because I was sick. My husband tried to run away, but they caught him and took him away somewhere I don't know.

I think if peace comes, and life goes back to what it used to be before… I will have hope again."

Patricia Hartasanchez is World Vision's essential life skills adviser in Goma, where more than 65,000 people are currently seeking refuge from the fighting. Unfortunately, rape has become an epidemic in a country where peace accords and cease-fires have failed. Sadly, "women expect to be raped and hope that it will not include violence and injury," says Hartasanchez.

Anna Ridout, a World Vision communications manager stationed in Goma, says that World Vision is working to reduce instances of rape in the camps "by training local people in international humanitarian law, and providing innovative initiatives such as fuel-efficient stoves to women to reduce the amount of time women have to spend collecting firewood — when they are more vulnerable to sexual abuse." Ridout also says that staff members are exploring more security measures to add to the camps, such as improved lighting, cell phones for key community members, and rechargeable flashlights.

We cannot ignore the horrific reality that women and girls are facing in Congo. Like the women interviewed in this story, the situation there should not remain a nameless or faceless news story. You can help. Join with World Vision and contact your members of Congress. Urge them to work toward bringing peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For Mutari's sake, and for the thousands upon thousands of people whose lives have been uprooted by this crisis, peace cannot come soon enough.

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