Ask women in rural Africa when they were born, and they would invariably answer you surprised, full of uncertainty: “I think it was in 1981 or 1982”.
Ask women displaced in the camps scattered across the region of North Kivu, DR Congo when they’ve fled their villages, and they’ll say: “we’ve fled sometime in August” or “we’ve been here for a month or maybe two.”
Ask the same women when they got raped, and they’ll say: on the 22nd of October 2012, last Friday, yesterday.
In 37-year-old Josephine’s case it was last October, on the 22nd, late afternoon.
She was on the outskirts of the camp, collecting firewood. She was alone. She was tired. She was worried about what she would give to her eight children to eat that evening.
She was also 5-months pregnant.
It happened near Lac Vert camp (on the outskirts of Goma town). She’s been taking refuge in the camp with her children since last August, after having fled fighting in their home region of Masisi. She got lost from her husband on the way to the camp. Since then they spoke on the phone, and he sent her money a few times. But she has never heard from him again after she told him about her ordeal.
“I don’t think he has accepted it though he said to me that he did. But since then, he has not contacted me again. He has also stopped sending money. He is not supporting the children in any way.”
She looks up, and touches her face, her eyes, then continues.
“It was difficult after it <rape> happened. Painful. I used to bleed a lot and couldn’t even walk. After the baby was born, I felt a bit better. But people here have been talking behind my back.”
Her voice becomes hoarse. “They don’t talk to me, they wouldn’t even touch my baby. “how can she have a child without a husband?’ they say ”.
“But I have to live here. I have nowhere to go. I don’t know if the fighting has stopped <back home>. I live here, in misery. I can’t explain how hard my life is.” She looks down at the sleeping baby in her arms. “I don’t even have socks to put on the baby.”
She reminisces on her life before the troubles: a husband; food for everyone; a big house; a small business. “Now look at this tent. There is nothing here.”
What’s worst, she is constantly worried about her children, especially about her four girls. The eldest one is 14. “What if the same thing happens to her as it happened to me? She gets sometimes lost in the camp. For up to a week, I would not know where she is until we find her…What happened to me is not just my problem. It is the problem of many women here…When I hear that someone went through the same thing as me, I find her and go with her to the health clinic.”
It’s important to talk about what has happened, she says, and to seek help. “Speaking to the educators? was like regaining my spirit. When I don’t talk to someone, I just stay in my tent and cry.”
Her dream? To be able to send her children to school again. To not have to worry. To live peacefully again. To be in a stable place.
But for now, she is here. On this burnt earth, amidst fluttering tents, and suffering. Where women get raped every day. And where sister helps sister.
NOTE: As of March 13, there are more than 40,000 people displaced in camps, sites on the outskirts of Goma . There are over 24,000 people living in the camp Lac Vert. CARE has been responding in three camps, including Lac Vert by:
- Training educators selected from the displaced population itself to act as a link between their peers and health centres so that survivors of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) know how and where to access services. The educators also play an important role in sensibilising women and men on how to take measures to prevent incidents of SGBV, and work with men so that they are engaged in the fight against attitudes and traditions, which render women and girls vulnerable to violence. To date, CARE and partners have trained 30 educators in Lac Vert (and 90 across three camps), women and men, and continue to provide follow-up training.
- Providing socio-economic support through cash transfer. This enables survivors of SGBV and other vulnerable groups to not only have the means to buy essential items such as food or be able to continue the education of their children, but also to start small income generating activities in the camp, and regain a sense of normality and dignity in their lives. The income generating activities, in turn, prevent them from being exposed to further sexual violence as women often fall prey to sexual violence or prostitution as they seek ways to earn a living, or search for food or firewood. 186 women and men at Lac Vert have benefitted from CARE’s cash transfer on 18 March 13. Josephine was one of them.
ABOUT CARE: Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to help lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty.