"Children of the Enemy"

C-Fam is hosting an important panel next week, which will be chaired by local writer and human rights activist Dr Susan Yoshihara. She writes:

Among the hundreds of Christians and minorities abducted by Islamic State terrorists are women and girls forced into marriage and sexual slavery. As world leaders fumble to respond to ISIS attacks, another crisis looms – the perilous future of these women and girls and the children they will conceive during captivity.

Having researched the topic thoroughly, she is familiar with many historical examples, and since rape as a tool of war is nothing new we know two important facts:

1. such children suffer tremendously because of the circumstances of their conception; and 
2. most aid programs do little to help them because they are not technically "survivors" of the conflicts.

While tight-knit families and long-standing cultures have their strengths, they rarely welcome those whom they see as "children of the enemy" because of the shame that attaches to them and their mothers.

One presenter will offer her own research from Africa:

Eunice Apio has been working for more than a decade in Northern Uganda with women abducted by the guerilla group Lord’s Resistance Army and with their children born in captivity. She will present her research comparing four cases including Uganda, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Southern Sudan.

Apio says many officials do not understand that survivors of sexual violence cannot reintegrate if their children do not integrate.

Furthermore, one must keep in mind the virulently pro-abortion proclivities of the UN, who sees these children as "co-aggressors" against their mothers. Their answer to rape is abortion-on-demand, which they believe would eliminate much of the problem. I would imagine that even drawing attention to the numbers could be used for nefarious ends, which would arm them to advocate for more abortion, but one cannot let that concern draw away from the great good that can be done.

These mothers, God bless them, are mothers and they "often love their children and want them to be successful." It's a very difficult topic, and we don't want history repeated in the next generation. Kindly pray for this excellent presentation, and stop in if you're in the area. War is hell, and certainly the trauma doesn't end with the violence. Let's pray for peace of heart and this endeavor in particular.