We cannot neglect to pray for the women in the war-torn areas of Africa who are subject to constant brutal attacks. This is from a recent report from a woman with the International Medical Corps:
But to get a painfully vivid snapshot of what’s happening here, you need look no further than the women and young girls – girls as young as two. The Kivu provinces have produced some of the highest numbers of sexual violence victims in the world. You can literally see the trauma on their faces, and in their medical charts.
Their stories are appalling, and there is a sinister, sickening uniformity to the details of these stories, i.e. who the perpetrators are and the acts [that] they’re committing.
Caution, there are brutal stories in the piece starting about half-way down, but they lead to a particular form of suffering, as a result.
Subsequent to the attack, she has suffered a condition that has become a pernicious marker of the violence and absence of adequate pre- and post-natal health care in DRC: a severe gynecologic injury called fistula. Thousands upon thousands of Congolese women suffer from its devastating physical and emotional effects. There’s no polite way to describe fistula, a vaginal rupture that causes urine and feces to seep down the woman’s legs and that causes her to smell. As painful as it is and difficult to treat, women with fistulas doubly suffer from the stigma associated with it. They are often referred to with the pejorative “baqua,” Swahili for “rape”. They are frequently ostracized by their families and communities, and many are forced to leave their homes. Even those who remain find it near impossible to perform the already back-breaking daily tasks of carrying 50- to 100-pound loads of water, food and supplies to their homes.
The writer, Margaret Aguirre, is beautifully dedicated to her work, seeing the people behind the numbers, the individual suffering in the midst of overwhelming crisis. Her hope is in proportion to her abilities:
It’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the medical and psychological needs across this region. And yet without us, it would be so much worse; those most vulnerable to the violence and lack of health care would have almost nowhere to turn. So we keep building medical facilities one brick at a time; providing food to malnourished children one cc at a time; delivering clean water one liter at a time; and helping plant vegetable gardens, one seed at a time.
There is no other way.
Let us support her in prayer, and appeal to the Divine Mercy of Our Lord to sweep the land with grace. Indeed, He came to make all things new.
[On the "Passion of the Present" site (right column) there are many places where donations can be sent.]
This is awful. Thank you for posting. How terrible for these women- not only the horrors of rape but this aftermath that signals that they are victims.
Posted by: Small | Wednesday, 11 April 2007 at 10:33 AM
God have mercy. It is so terrible, so terrible.
Posted by: elena maria vidal | Friday, 13 April 2007 at 09:11 PM