By: Mugisho Ndabuli Theophile

This book highlights that there is a wide room for women victims of rape during war and those who are expelled from their families because they have been raped for empowerment. In this vein, the book portrays the different possibilities the Congolese Females Action for Promoting Rights and Development (COFAPRI) is exploring in order to empower rural women victims of war rape and domestic violence in the rural villages of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). The aim of this emancipation is to help these victims to scar up both their physical and moral wounds in order to reshape the meaning of their lives, as well as their FKLOGUHQ¶V and then trace a peaceful way toward a future that gives hope and confidence in their hearts.

COFAPRI is a women’s grassroots organization that is operating in remote and dangerous villages of the eastern DR Congo. The villages of this part of the world are still a hub for militia and hooligans who are intimidating, raping, killing pitilessly women, children and the ecosystem. The organization is closely and tirelessly working with rural women who are victims of local discriminatory traditions in order to empower them for a better future. Such liberation aims to break these discriminatory traditions that reduce women and girls to nothing, making them second class people who have no word in families and in the country.

Biased traditions remain alarming and worse in remote villages where most girls and women are illiterate. In these areas, these mores are men’s invention and they [traditions] are vigorously protected by the same men for their personal interests. The main reason behind this safeguard is that the DR Congo is a strong paternalistic system that protects by all costs these traditions, making the women to be subjugated to men and remain eternal second class people who must live in total obedience of and dependence on men.

The situation of these victims worsened with the advent of warfare that added more weight on their natural plights of cultures. The women and girls, no matter their age and status, have been raped since 1996 (for more than 20 years today) when the unending wars started. Since the target of the fighters were women and girls, rape has then been used in different contexts, sometimes the victims were raped in the eyes of their relatives, children, husband, friends and neighbors. Through such terror, rape became an easy arm of war used by the rapists. The evil doers have been directing rape toward women and girls of all ages. In this period of cyclic wars has never been discriminatory, as it applied to women, girls, men and boys. With focus on women and girls victims, the aim of the rapists was but to hurt the victim physically and morally by dehumanizing her, cutting her off of her family and her community in order to weaken her properly, and so she can die while alive.

This did cause the victim unbearable shame and moral death. The victims were killed twice while alive. Rape caused the victims moral and physical open wounds and ultimate detachment from families and communities. These women have been raped and some of them contaminated HIV/AIDS and STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases); many others got pregnancies that delivered fatherless children.

The children born of rape never knew their fathers. As earlier stated, the DR Congo is a patriarchal community where women follow blindly all decisions made by the masters of traditions. So, children born of rape become detached from the family of the mother and that of the husband of the mother. Not having a family because one has no father totally isolates and discriminates the innocent child, which sometimes traumatizes them.

It is in this context that COFAPRI initiated some ways that these victims can walk in order to reach the other side of the tunnel. As a way of remaking their lives, these victims are involved in various income generating activities in their different villages. The activities include, among others, sewing, animal rearing, knitting, beading and small business. In addition, they also involve in basic reading and writing in order to better involve in their developmental activities. The women also get hygienic education in order to improve on their life conditions. All these activities are done in teams where participants exchange on different issues regarding their lives in home and in community. In their teams, and in turns, each member is at the same time a learner and a teacher. All in all, this aims to promote the rights of women and children, as well as supporting them along their new life in order to overcome trauma and poverty.

The children born of rape also suffer protracted discrimination in their families since they are wrongly believed to be social cast and burden. COFAPRI helps these children to remake their lives for a harmonious future by facilitating them to get school enrolment. The children are also accompanied by the same organization in their studies; they are paid school fees and equipment. Being fatherless and social cast has often created a negative personal consideration in the minds of these children, which ultimately pushes them to join local militia or other gangs associations in order to revenge, which makes the cycle of wars become repeated and perpetual. This makes more women and girls to be raped, and more fatherless children to be born. Such children, due to the social disrespect they experience, decide to join local militia with the aim of revenging. The above mentioned organization is doing everything they can for the moment in order to hinder children from linking with the militia as this will certainly make them act the same way as their anonymous fathers behaved. It is in this context that the children are getting support from this incredible organization that is operating in the remote and dangerous villages of the DR Congo.

The writer of this book collected information via desk research along with data from the organization. The book is part of details from a video conference that the Co-Founder and Executive Secretary of COFAPRI presented to Red Hila, in their last meeting in Colombia in 2014. In order to support the story, some quotes from the women and the children we work with have been inserted in the story, along with some of their pictures. The women gave us full permission to use their photos and quotes, and we got consent, as well, from the mothers of the children. In the minds of the women and the children, using their pictures and stories will hugely contribute to spreading the word in the world about the quandaries they are living while confined to their remote villages in the eastern DR Congo. They also think this is a way the world can equally learn of the steps they have already walked toward developmental empowerment.

The different wars the country has been plunged in have caused moral harm, as well as physical one to the victims. Basing on this, the organization is also empowering the abusers and the victims to forgive each other in order to reach social harmony. By forgiving, the victims want the reality on how they were raped be told with assurance. This will help both the abuser and the abused as their morals will be stable. If the women victims are forgiving their abusers, harmony can settle in the hearts of the people and so they can work together as a united team that has a common goal.

The organization is also committed to educate the population at large on ways of scaling down the effects of traditional discriminatory rules that have negatively affected women and children in their areas. In the same vein, it focuses on making the victims of rape and domestic violence be confident and remake their lives after the predicament of warfare they have endured within themselves, in their homes and in families, as well as in the wider community. Through education, COFAPRI believes a new horizon can still work for these innocent victims. Education is so powerful that it can generate hope in hopeless minds, it can rebuild broken hearts by making women and children pillars of their families, communities and the nation in the future. This is eventually supported by Sydney J. Harris, as he states “the whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows”.

LAP Lambert Academic Publishing 2016

By: InSul Kim

The purpose of this dissertation study is to conduct an art-based, community action research study as a means (1) to support the recovery process of domestic violence survivors; (2) to produce social capital among members of the community to initiate civic discussions on the consequences of domestic violence; and (3) to investigate its implications for cultural policy as the outcomes of this study highlight the unique role of the arts in making a difference in people’s lives and communities. The artworks produced by the workshop participants of this study (i.e., domestic violence survivors) were exhibited in a professional gallery as a form of visual narrative that speaks for their wounded past and difficult journeys. The collected data strongly indicates that art can be an exceptionally powerful tool for communication and healing, when words and discussions fall short. Overall, this research investigates the instrumental functions of the arts as a means to produce social capital for personal well-being, social support, and social justice. The study was framed within action research methodology and the triangulation model in data sources, research methods, and theoretical lenses, while both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. The collected data were analyzed at three different levels: (1) Personal level (i.e., the art workshop participants: n=16), (2) Organizational level (i.e., the staff of the transitional housing facility and the gallery: n=6), and (3) Community level (i.e., the general audience who came to the exhibit: n=74).

Ohio State University 2011

By Gena K. Dufour, Charlene Y. Senn, and Nicole K. Jeffrey

Accurate measurement of sexual violence (SV) victimization is important for informing research, policy, and service provision. Measures such as the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) that use behaviorally specific language and a specified reference period (e.g., since age 14, over the past 12 months) are considered best practice and have substantially improved SV estimates given that so few incidents are reported to police. However, to date, we know little about whether estimates are affected by respondents’ reporting of incidents that occurred outside of the specified reference period (i.e., reference period errors). The current study explored the extent, nature, and impact on incidence estimates of reference period errors in two large, diverse samples of post-secondary students. Secondary analysis was conducted of data gathered using a follow-up date question after the Sexual Experiences Survey–Short Form Victimization. Between 8% and 68% of rape and attempted rape victims made reference period errors, with the highest proportion of errors occurring in the survey with the shortest reference period (1 month). These errors caused minor to moderate changes in time period-specific incidence estimates (i.e., excluding respondents with errors reduced estimates by up to 7%). Although including a date question does not guarantee that all time period-related errors will be identified, it can improve the accuracy of SV estimates, which is crucial for informing policy and prevention. Researchers measuring SV within specific reference periods should consider collecting dates of reported incidents as best practice.

Ontario, Canada: Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2023. 26p.

By Dominiek Coates, Maria Koleth and Lauren Hamilton   

Sexual violence is highly prevalent globally, and rates of reported sexual violence in Australia continue to rise. It can be both a standalone crime and a form of domestic and family violence. Sexual violence can adversely affect the physical and mental health and social wellbeing of victims and survivors, who might require support from legal, medical, counselling and advocacy services. Various specific interventions have been developed over time to support recovery and reduce the impact after sexual violence. Interventions typically fall into two categories: crisis responses delivered in the immediate aftermath of a sexual violence event, often in specialist sexual assault centres or in healthcare settings and comprising specialised medico-legal and counselling services; and post-crisis responses, typically therapeutic interventions implemented as long-term efforts to address psychological and emotional impacts. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the state of the evidence from existing systematic reviews in relation to the effectiveness of crisis and post-crisis interventions for victims and survivors of sexual violence.  

Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), 2022. 32p.

By The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Truth Project enables victims and survivors to share their experiences with a member of the Inquiry in a safe environment. This report shares 50 anonymised accounts of child sexual abuse which were shared with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by survivors participating in the Truth Project. The experiences describe sexual abuse perpetrated by adults from a variety of backgrounds. The Inquiry’s Truth Project has heard from over 1,000 victims and survivors, and is helping the Inquiry to understand more about the circumstances in which the sexual abuse of children can occur.

London: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, 2018. 96p