Want to Help Congo's Women? Send Cash

It’s now an open secret that the warring militias in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are fighting using women’s bodies as a battlefield. The United Nations Population Fund counted more than 9,000 rapes in that region last year alone — and those are only the instances women reported. Rights groups believe many, many more sexual assaults go unreported by women who face social stigma — or outright physical threats by their attackers — for speaking out.

The rape crisis in Congo, and the health effects that stem from it, has attracted a good deal of media attention. Panzi and HEAL Africa hospitals, which offer medical services and counseling to survivors, have been featured in major media. But less discussed is the aftermath of the crisis. For many women, after their immediate medical needs are met, there’s one pressing question: “How can I go home?”

Desiree Zwanck, a gender advisor to HEAL Africa, has found an answer: Come home with cash. HEAL Africa runs a mediation program that helps ease women’s return to their communities. Talk can go a long way, but Zwanck finds that Congolese francs go farther. Women who have access to micro-credit and use it to start small businesses have an easier time overcoming the usual stigma that haunts rape survivors.

The women, Zwanck says, “feel this gives them an added value. The family also respects the more — and so does the community — when they are able to manage their own funds, their own livestock, their own little boutique. All of this … elevates them to a point where they are again respected.”

Photo Credit: USAID.