Ongoing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to take its toll on women’s health.

Throughout the conflict women have been brutalized by rape and sexual violence. An estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years, with more than 18,000 cases reported between January and September 2008. This past May, the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee held a hearing to address how rape is being used as a weapon of war in the DRC.

Physical Trauma

Often this rape takes on extremely violent forms and can cause injuries to a woman’s reproductive organs. For instance, it can cause a health condition called vaginal fistula, which happens when the wall between a woman’s vagina and the bladder and/or rectum tears. Also called traumatic fistula when caused by sexual violence, it’s hard to know how many women in the DRC have this condition. But it’s been estimated that thousands of Congolese girls and women have been impacted, and one assessment of six DRC provinces found that out of 432 fistula cases, around 14 percent were because of trauma.

Jim Bliss, blogging on The Quiet Road, elaborates on the situation. He says:

In the rest of the world the condition [fistula] generally occurs due to serious complications during childbirth. Most gynecologists and obstetricians will go their entire career without ever encountering a single case. In DRC, however, there’s an epidemic. And it’s not down to an increase in complicated births.

Many of the militias in DRC have adopted a deliberate policy of terror through mass rape…However rape – even violent rape – does not as a rule cause fistula. No, instead the militiamen, having already gang-raped the woman (often a huge number of times over a period of weeks or months) will deliberately inflict major damage to her genitals before sending her back to her village. More often than not this is achieved by carefully shooting the woman’s vagina at point-blank range…Knives, broken glass or just sharp sticks are [also] used to cause as much damage as possible. Girls as young as 12 months have been subjected to this violence.

Medical complications for women with fistula can include being permanently incontinent, infertility, miscarriages, and other health problems. On top of this, women with fistula often face stigma because of their status as a rape victim, as well as their chronic incontinence.

Treatment and health care

Many wounded women are unable to get treatment, but there are some medical centers that treat rape-related injuries, including fistula. One such center is the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, which was created in 1999. Surgeons at the hospital performed 540 fistula repairs in 2005, 80 percent of which were due to sexual violence. In this video, a psychologist at the Panzi Hospital shows what life is like for women seeking treatment for traumatic fistula.

Endre Vestvik visited the hospital and took a series of photos of women and girls being treated for fistula. This is a photo of 4-year-old Vitonsi, who is preparing for fistula surgery. She was raped by soldiers when trying to cross the river with her pregnant mom and her sister.

Gypsy Girl Chronicles also went to Panzi Hospital and describes her experience:

Doctors here specialize in fistula operation and women travel here from far and wide for a cure. I met one woman here who was raped and tortured at the age of 17 during the height of the war. She has been at the hospital, away from her family for over 6 years now enduring one operation after another. She said that she did not feel human anymore and had no future.

A hospital in Goma is also working to treat women who have fistula. This video shows a young woman with the condition being taken to the DOCS Hospital, where other women are recovering from treatment.

Hope for the future

Despite the positive work being done by these hospitals, Emin Pasha, blogging on Congo Resources, felt highly discouraged after learning more about sexual violence in the DRC.

Little is being done about the problem, despite the fact that rape in eastern Congo has become such a well-known and well-publicized problem. Research on the topic remains preliminary; there are still only a handful of clinics and hospitals addressing the needs of the women; police and local authorities still don’t have any capacity or willingness to protect the population; and overall it appears that the problem is getting worse not better.

Still, Brad MacIntosh, blogging on A wide-angle view of the DRC conflict, says his visit to the Panzi Hospital in June gave him a glimmer of hope.

It is hard to describe all the emotions as I walked through the open corridors of the hospital complex on a warm and sunny day. I headed towards the operating theatres and found that the second building is now fully operational. This operating theater is for surgical repair of women who have survived rape. Surgeries are performed by the head fistula surgeon, a gentle and wise doctor named Dr Yunga who I met previously. Beyond this building is a beautiful courtyard where survivors of rape have a place to call their own, where they have workshops, sing, cook and learn skills…I have seen evidence of remarkable progress at Panzi Hospital. Layers of progress in fact, which leads me to conclude it is a place of immense potential and optimism in city that has seen too much despair.

Photo of Waiting for Treatment by Endre Vestvik (cyclopsr) on Flickr.

This blog-post was originally published at Global Voices Online on July 29, 2009.

Though the major conflict has ceased in Darfur, in western Sudan, the continuing instability and ongoing attacks have been particularly harmful for region’s young people. But youth both within and outside of Sudan have been vital in raising awareness and funds and trying to bring change to Darfur.

Though the major conflict has ceased in Darfur, in western Sudan, a recent U.N. report says those living in the region still suffer from major human rights abuses and a fundamental lack of freedoms. The continuing instability and ongoing attacks have been particularly harmful for Darfur’s young people, as nearly half of those affected by the conflict are children.

Conflict in Darfur

Since 2003, when the fighting began between rebel groups and Sudanese government forces in Darfur, the U.N. estimates as many as 300,000 people have died. During this time, more than 2.7 million Darfuri people have also been displaced, forced into refugee camps in Sudan and Chad. A study released last month shows that more than 80 percent of the deaths during the conflict were the result of disease, not violence, suggesting that many people remain at risk even though the fighting has decreased. To make matters worse, last year the Sudanese government evicted many international humanitarian groups after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur; the government continues to expel foreign organizations.

Effect of conflict on the young

The situation has been especially hard on the country’s young people, as an estimated 1.8 million children have been affected by armed conflict, many exposed to health concerns, a disruption in education and other services and brutal violence. In Darfur, 700,000 children have grown up knowing nothing but the conflict and an estimated 4,500 children are believed to be associated with armed forces and groups. These young people, however, are not the majority, as youth both within and outside of Sudan have been vital in raising awareness and funds and trying to bring change to the region.

Powerful images

Over the past several years, Darfuri children’s experiences during the conflict have been chronicled via their drawings. Some of these drawings are being used as evidence submitted to the International Criminal Court as part of the investigation of war crimes. In 2005, two Human Rights Watch researchers went to the Chad-Sudan border, during which time schoolchildren offered them hundreds of drawings. Many pictures showed bombings by Sudanese government forces, shootings, rapes and the burning of villages. Ethan Zuckerman, a co-founder of Global Voices Online, blogging on My Heart’s In Accra, said the images were powerful:

When I was at Human Rights Watch a week ago, there was a pile of these sketches on a conference room table, along side a pile of photographs from Janjawid militamen. What amazed me was how details in the children’s drawings echoed details from the photos – the stocks of the automatic rifles, the round shape of the houses, the posture of two gunmen riding on horseback. It was immediately clear to me that these drawings weren’t of weapons imagined by children, but eye witness accounts.

Art makes a difference in Darfur

A Waging Peace researcher collected similar drawings in 2007, some of which are shown in this video. Drawing is also being used as a way to help children heal, shown in this video, as are other forms of art. The documentary Darfur Plays shows a group of two dozen young people in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, who are using street theater to spark discussion and increase awareness. Tambay, blogging on Shadow and Act, comments on the film:

Love this!

Art makes a difference in Darfur, where a troupe of self-taught young actors take theatre into the streets and refugee camps.

Their medicine for ailing Darfur is theatre, drama, song and dance – a testament to the power of art to heal!

Young people outside of Sudan raise awareness

Young people outside of Sudan are also working to raise awareness and improve conditions for Sudanese youth. In addition to a host of celebrities, youth in many Western countries have been drawn to the situation in Darfur. Youth initiatives over the years have varied greatly, from creating poetry and organizing rallies to podcasting student voices and finding fundraising programs.

And the initiatives continue. In Canada, the youth-led group STAND Canada has developed a campaign called ‘Stand For The Dead.’ Beginning this month, Canadians will be encouraged to wear t-shirts bearing one Darfuri victim’s name and the group will be showing a film called Darfur. Lori L. Tharps, blogging on My American Meltingpot, came across a different Darfur t-shirt-campaign years ago and at first questioned its effectiveness:

Throughout the day in New York City, I kept seeing more and more teenagers with Darfur t-shirts on. Like it was a fashion statement. Like supporting Darfur was cool. At first I was amused, then a little perturbed, like ‘did these wealthy White kids have any clue what modern-day genocide really meant?” But then I reasoned, even if they didn’t, they were increasing awareness with their simple black & white t-shirts…

…Black teens, White, Asian…I’m seeing a multicultural mix of young people up in arms for not only the victims of Darfur but for people around the world who are suffering, caught in the crossfire of violence. I stumbled onto the website Teens4Peace and was overjoyed to see that American teens have more to care about than MySpace, Ashlee Simpson and the latest iPod manifestation.

Meanwhile, a high school in Long Island City, New York, organized a fundraiser in December to help youth in Nyala. The blog Stories From Darfur elaborates on the event:

I received an email from a friend and activist in Nyala Darfur. He works with a group of youth who are trying hard to preserve and nurture Darfur’s musical and cultural heritage. The youth write and perform their own songs and develop theater pieces based on issues their communities care about the most. Some of the pieces are nostalgic and speak of life before armed militias violently displaced them, others are purely entertaining while others are calls for justice, freedom and peace. For war affected youth and their audiences this group is a great forum for expression, community building and healing. My friend asked us to help them start a mini orchestra…Our youth at Long Island City High School decided to support their effort and packed their school’s auditorium last Thursday for a Talent Show fundraiser. From Hip Hop dance performances to an impersonation of Lady Gaga, they put together a 30 act show that raised over $800.

Other strategies are being used to engage even more youth. A few years ago, a free, online, student-developed video game called Darfur is Dying was released. In the game, players learn about the conflict and must keep their refugee camp functioning despite possible attacks. The game has led to at least 50,000 people taking action to help end the violence. Steve Rothman, blogging on The Social Media Soapbox, critiques the game:

To play the game, you first select from one of several Darfurian avatars, but they are no more than cartoon figures. Perhaps if a fictional profile for each of the figures had been provided, it might have had that effect. I also wondered if transforming such things as foraging for water or hiding from the militia into game objectives could potentially backfire and desensitize people to the plight of Darfurians…

…Nobody will be spending hours playing Darfur is Dying in order to “keep their camp functioning,” the stated goal of the game. But of course that isn’t the point. I imagine the greatest value of this game, and others like it, will be to engage a mass audience of young people in social issues and causes — an audience that is less accessible through more traditional communications channels.

A message to young people everywhere

Whatever the method, Emily Holland found that increased awareness is exactly what some youth in Darfur want. Blogging for the International Rescue Committee, she talked to about 50 young people in a refugee camp. When she asked them, “What is your message to young people your age around the world?,” they said:

We want them to know about our activities and our problems.

We want them to support us. To understand that we need education and healthcare.

The individuals whom people from outside Darfur are exposed to are not always necessarily from the camps. We want youth from all over the world to see what life is like here. To hear the real story.

Photo of Darfuri girl in red by wanderingzito on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Though the situation in Haiti is still critical, young people both in Haiti and outside are responding to the crisis by documenting the aftermath of the earthquake, blogging about it, and raising money and awareness.
As Haiti’s government raised the confirmed earthquake death toll to 150,000 earlier this week, warning that figure could double, there is particular concern for the well-being of the country’s most vulnerable — its young people.

Up to 3 million people are estimated to need aid following the January 12 earthquake. The situation is particularly critical for youth, says UNICEF, since nearly half of all Haitians are under 18 years old and almost 40 percent are under 14. Of the survivors, many thousands of children have been orphaned, lost or separated from their families, leaving them open to health risks, abuse and exploitation. However, young people aren’t passively watching the catastrophe unfold. Those within and outside of Haiti are contributing to efforts to raise aid and awareness.

In Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast, the film school Ciné Institute continues to provide Haitian youth with film education and technical skills training. Despite losing film equipment and having their school reduced to rubble, the students have been documenting the quake’s aftermath through photos, Twitter and eyewitness accounts. Here’s an account from student Marie Lucie Dubreuse:

This is the first time I am seeing the damages of an earthquake. I was at Ciné Institute when everything started rolling under our feet. Thank God I wasn’t alone on this unforgettable day. One of my classmates took my hand and ran to the streets with me. That’s when I understood what happened.

I ran home to get my daughter that was home at the time. This has traumatized everyone. We are all alive at Ciné Institute and we are doing our best to inform you of the situation in Jacmel.

The students are also posting videos. The blog Barking Robot, by Derek E. Baird, calls the captured stories and images “heartbreaking and hard to watch.” This video, for example, compiles the students’ earthquake coverage:

After the Earthquake: A Compilation of Ciné Institute Coverage from Ciné Institute on Vimeo.

The blog Go Green Toolshed discusses another initiative called Nouvelle Vie *Haiti,* an ongoing project of the International Association of Human Values. The project plans to mobilize 50 Haitian youth who will commit to serving their country for two years. During this time, they will develop skills in trauma relief, food and water security, as well as technology and construction. Meanwhile, Rick Perera, blogging for the humanitarian group CARE, shares stories of how the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides have been helping in the city of Léogane. In this post, he talks about a 22-year-old named Joanie Estin:

Joanie was enjoying the early evening socializing with neighbors outside, as was the custom on the Rue de la Liberté in Léogane, when the unthinkable happened.

Her father was the only one inside the house when it collapsed. They never saw him again. The surviving family members – Joanie, her mother, and six siblings – have been living at a local school, the Écôle des Frères, ever since.

“I was so overwhelmed at first. My mother and I stood still in the middle of the road for about 15 minutes, until the earth calmed. Then we went home, and our house had been completely destroyed.”

Joanie coped the way she always has: by getting down to work. As soon as she could, she found her way back to Ste. Rose de Lima and, with some 50 boys and girls who had survived the earthquake, started rallying.

As many of the local Scouts and Girl Guides who could find each other in the aftermath – 94 in all – began volunteering their services to humanitarian groups, including CARE, that bring critical supplies to survivors in central Léogane.

Outside of Haiti, youth are also taking steps to help raise money and awareness. In Los Angeles, “Youth Run 4 Haiti” brought together around 3,000 people, youth organizations have posted tips on how to help, youth are being encouraged to send text messages to raise funds, and numerous multimedia initiatives are connecting young people with ongoing relief efforts. Another example: venezuelanalysis.com says that the youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela is showing solidarity:

The youth wing of Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has set up a collection point in central Caracas, for donations of food, medicine, clothing and shoes to send to the people of Haiti.

Heryck Rangel from the PSUV youth said, “We young people want to deepen the internationalist character of the Bolivarian Revolution and highlight solidarity as a socialist value. The Venezuelans have to understand that Haiti is a country that has suffered much and now needs our urgent support.”

Even fashion is playing a role in helping Haitians. The Teens for Jeans drive in the U.S. and Canada is expanding its mission to help homeless Haitian teens. Once the jeans arrive in Haiti, the YMCA Haiti in Port-au-Prince will distribute them, as well as provide other services. The blog Fashion Fling elaborates:

“Want an easy way to help out the teen victims of the Haiti earthquake? Aéropostale and Do Something are teaming up to donate jeans, and you can join them! For every pair of gently worn jeans you donate to the Teens for Jeans program, Aéropostale will donate a brand new pair of jeans to Haiti victims (up to 100,000 pairs). This initiative is part of Do Something’s “Teens for Jeans” campaign that’s going on now, which raises awareness about the youth homelessness epidemic.”

Various writers and bloggers caution, though, that while short-term relief efforts are important, there must also be an eye towards long-term solutions and rebuilding efforts. Still, Steven Culbertson, blogging on The Huffington Post, says that youth should be acknowledged for their efforts so far:

Students in schools and universities immediately planned fundraisers in order to send money and supplies to charities providing aid to the earthquake victims. They became a wealth of knowledge, helping to spread the word about ways to provide support through social networking sites. They helped set a new record for money raised by mobile phones…

…We sometimes forget when planning our professional lives around engaging and supporting youth in service that, when the moment comes, children and youth are already poised for action. Thank you to all of the amazing youth out there, around the world, who continue to answer the call to serve.

Photo of Girl Surveys the Damage by newbeatphoto on Flickr, Creative Commons.

The war in Afghanistan has affected young people in a variety of ways. However, young people have found many ways to express themselves despite their circumstances.

Last year was the deadliest one for Afghanistan’s civilians, including children, since the American-led war began in 2001.

Children have increasingly become victims of the conflict — Afghanistan Rights Monitor recently showed that about 1,050 children died in 2009 in war-related incidents and there were at least 2,080 cases of grave violations of child rights, such as recruitment of kids as suicide bombers and foot soldiers and forced labor. Three decades of conflict has also had long-term repercussions on the country’s youth, many of whom are disfranchised and lack educational and employment opportunities. Literacy and secondary school enrollment rates are also low.

The situation for Afghan girls and women is particularly alarming; a December report shows that they suffer high levels of violence and discrimination and have poor access to justice and education. Afghan girls are also under traditional pressures to marry and have children at a young age.

“A lost generation of Afghanistan”

The Youth Parliament blog, based in India, elaborates on the situation:

Possibly one of the biggest roles in the process of restructuring Afghanistan can be played by the youth of Afghanistan. 68% of the Afghan population consists of people who are under the age of 25 years. However, the long period of war has deprived many of them of their youth and childhood. Categorized as the ‘lost generation’ of Afghanistan, the socially imposed silence and lack of education has suppressed large sections of the Afghan youth. Moreover, the youth is hardly seen as a direct mechanism for peace building, but only as possible recruits for various terrorist organizations.

Despite the circumstances, efforts are being made by and for youth to maintain their health and education. The Youth Parliament blog continues:

The youth has been able to overcome some of these barriers in the recent past to play a more active role. This is evident from the existence of a number of youth organisations spread over the entire country which have undertaken the task of promoting non-formal education, increasing awareness, promoting volunteerism for peace and development of the country and most of them have got integrated in the government or working of other NGOs.

Youth seeking new opportunities

Examples of youth involvement range from a teen training to be midwife to help combat the country’s high maternal mortality rate to young women protesting against a law restricting their rights to a young woman nurturing Afghan girls through soccer. In Kabul, another sport is being used to get kids off the street and stay active — skateboarding. Skateistan teaches boys and girls how to skateboard, among other skills such as skateboard instruction, literacy and computer skills. Skateboarding offers a rare opportunity for Afghan girls to participate in a public sport, helping break down traditional barriers, as this video documents. The blog I Skate, Therefore I am provides background on the initiative:

Skateistan started two years ago in a dried-up fountain in the heart of the Afghan capital, when two Australians with three skateboards started teaching a small group of fascinated kids. It is now Afghanistan’s (and the world’s) first co-educational skateboarding school. The school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding and provides them with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment programs.

The bright lines discusses the opening of Afghanistan’s first indoor skateboarding park and its significance:

On October 29, 2009, Skateistan will be opening the largest indoor sports facility & skate park in Kabul. It’s incredible how this team of instructors is engaging young folk in the art of skateboarding, in a place where the social opportunities for them, especially young girls, is limited because of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The goal is to bring indoor & outdoor skateboarding facilities to Afghanistan. There’s going to be separate classes for young girls.

Young women finding relief through writing

Some young women are also finding an outlet for self-expression, healing and outreach via writing. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is a blog started by novelist Masha Hamilton that connects Afghan women, between the ages of 18 and 28, with writing instructors in the United States. Its goal is to allow Afghan women to have a voice that isn’t filtered through male relatives or the media. The young women’s writing covers issues ranging from the joy of playing basketball to death threats from the Taliban to breaking the silence. In this post, an anonymous blogger talks about how she is being forced into a marriage and in desperate need of solutions:

After my father died, the responsibility for me fell to my brothers, who grew up under the Taliban government and were influenced by it. Now I live with three Talibs and I must obey what they say. I am not like a girl in the house, but a slave. When I was at third year at the university, the owner of our house demanded higher rent. My family decided they would leave Kabul and go to a province where housing was cheaper. But I didn’t know how I would continue my studies in that case, so I gave up my transportation money to help pay for our rent, and I go to the university on foot.

Still, at the beginning of this year, my brothers said: “It is time for you to marry.” They arranged a marriage to my first cousin, my mom’s brother’s son, who lives in a province where most of the people are Talib. My cousin is about 40 years old and uneducated. His family has a business and a big house. Their women are required to wear burqas and are responsible for cooking, cleaning and caring for the animals. Most have eight or nine children. They can’t go outside the house—even when they are sick, they aren’t allowed to go to the doctor.

Many of the young women also express their sentiments through poetry. In these segments of a poem, Shogofa shares her story:

I am from long line of women who have walked alone …
From a land that smells of the blood of innocent people
From a people who have lost everything in war – sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers
From a people feeling hopeless

…

I am from long line of women who have walked alone…
I know now how to enter society
And find my answers though I’m alone
Learn from my experience though I have failed many times
I never give up
I find my way and learn nothing is impossible to achieve
I ignore those things that destroy my mind
I learn that no one can help me except me
I accept reality and I’m ready to face any problem
Now I have ambition to achieve my goal
To help my people bring peace to the next generation

Hope for the future

Others also remain hopeful about the future of Afghanistan and the role youth can play in bringing peace and security. Mozhdah Jamalzadah, blogging on Afghanistan Through My Eyes, says:

One thing that impressed me very much about the younger generation in Afghanistan, at least from what I’ve seen so far, is that they are so eager to learn, and they strive for success. Even with the lack, and low standard of education these kids try to gain as much as they can. They are incredibly intelligent. In North America where education system is absolutely amazing, most kids will do only what they have to in order to get to the next level. Most are not passionate. I believe if you give the same opportunities to these Afghan youth who are so hungry for knowledge, who knows how far they can take it. The sky is the limit.

Photo of Afghan children by isafmedia, U.S. Air Force TSgt Laura K. Smith, on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Ongoing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to take its toll on women’s health.

Throughout the conflict women have been brutalized by rape and sexual violence. An estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years, with more than 18,000 cases reported between January and September 2008. This past May, the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee held a hearing to address how rape is being used as a weapon of war in the DRC.

Physical Trauma

Often this rape takes on extremely violent forms and can cause injuries to a woman’s reproductive organs. For instance, it can cause a health condition called vaginal fistula, which happens when the wall between a woman’s vagina and the bladder and/or rectum tears. Also called traumatic fistula when caused by sexual violence, it’s hard to know how many women in the DRC have this condition. But it’s been estimated that thousands of Congolese girls and women have been impacted, and one assessment of six DRC provinces found that out of 432 fistula cases, around 14 percent were because of trauma.

Jim Bliss, blogging on The Quiet Road, elaborates on the situation. He says:

In the rest of the world the condition [fistula] generally occurs due to serious complications during childbirth. Most gynecologists and obstetricians will go their entire career without ever encountering a single case. In DRC, however, there’s an epidemic. And it’s not down to an increase in complicated births.

Many of the militias in DRC have adopted a deliberate policy of terror through mass rape…However rape – even violent rape – does not as a rule cause fistula. No, instead the militiamen, having already gang-raped the woman (often a huge number of times over a period of weeks or months) will deliberately inflict major damage to her genitals before sending her back to her village. More often than not this is achieved by carefully shooting the woman’s vagina at point-blank range…Knives, broken glass or just sharp sticks are [also] used to cause as much damage as possible. Girls as young as 12 months have been subjected to this violence.

Medical complications for women with fistula can include being permanently incontinent, infertility, miscarriages, and other health problems. On top of this, women with fistula often face stigma because of their status as a rape victim, as well as their chronic incontinence.

Treatment and health care

Many wounded women are unable to get treatment, but there are some medical centers that treat rape-related injuries, including fistula. One such center is the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, which was created in 1999. Surgeons at the hospital performed 540 fistula repairs in 2005, 80 percent of which were due to sexual violence. In this video, a psychologist at the Panzi Hospital shows what life is like for women seeking treatment for traumatic fistula.

Endre Vestvik visited the hospital and took a series of photos of women and girls being treated for fistula. This is a photo of 4-year-old Vitonsi, who is preparing for fistula surgery. She was raped by soldiers when trying to cross the river with her pregnant mom and her sister.

Gypsy Girl Chronicles also went to Panzi Hospital and describes her experience:

Doctors here specialize in fistula operation and women travel here from far and wide for a cure. I met one woman here who was raped and tortured at the age of 17 during the height of the war. She has been at the hospital, away from her family for over 6 years now enduring one operation after another. She said that she did not feel human anymore and had no future.

A hospital in Goma is also working to treat women who have fistula. This video shows a young woman with the condition being taken to the DOCS Hospital, where other women are recovering from treatment.

Hope for the future

Despite the positive work being done by these hospitals, Emin Pasha, blogging on Congo Resources, felt highly discouraged after learning more about sexual violence in the DRC.

Little is being done about the problem, despite the fact that rape in eastern Congo has become such a well-known and well-publicized problem. Research on the topic remains preliminary; there are still only a handful of clinics and hospitals addressing the needs of the women; police and local authorities still don’t have any capacity or willingness to protect the population; and overall it appears that the problem is getting worse not better.

Still, Brad MacIntosh, blogging on A wide-angle view of the DRC conflict, says his visit to the Panzi Hospital in June gave him a glimmer of hope.

It is hard to describe all the emotions as I walked through the open corridors of the hospital complex on a warm and sunny day. I headed towards the operating theatres and found that the second building is now fully operational. This operating theater is for surgical repair of women who have survived rape. Surgeries are performed by the head fistula surgeon, a gentle and wise doctor named Dr Yunga who I met previously. Beyond this building is a beautiful courtyard where survivors of rape have a place to call their own, where they have workshops, sing, cook and learn skills…I have seen evidence of remarkable progress at Panzi Hospital. Layers of progress in fact, which leads me to conclude it is a place of immense potential and optimism in city that has seen too much despair.

Photo of Waiting for Treatment by Endre Vestvik (cyclopsr) on Flickr.

This blog-post was originally published at Global Voices Online on July 29, 2009.

Despite increased awareness ofcontraception, adolescent pregnancy continues to be a major health problem in Jamaica with 35 percent of Jamaican women having their first pregnancy by age 19. Most of these pregnancies are not planned.

In a study released in March, 94 percent of the pregnant teens interviewed said that their pregnancies were unintended. The same study showed high rates of sexual violence among pregnant and non-pregnant teens. It found that almost half of the 15- to 17-year-old female teens in Kingston, Jamaica, who were interviewed reported experiencing sexual coercion or violence. One-third of these teens said that they had been persuaded or forced to participate in their first sexual experience.

Besides forced sex, UNICEF attributes high teen pregnancy rates in Jamaica to factors such as a low rate of contraceptive use, an early age for sexual initiation, exchanging sex for resources, and poor access to information and skills on safe and responsible sex.

Thinkbass describes this scene she witnessed when working as an intern in a hospital in St. Catherine, Jamaica. She says:

“On a duty night it is a norm for me to see two or three incomplete miscarriages (we do not like the term abortions anymore). The majority are under 30 years of age with a few being over 40 and an alarming number being under 21 years. The shocking nature of the problem is best understood in short anecdotes.

Age 16 Problem: Incomplete miscarriage

Alarming feature (AF): Asketh the stupid doctor (me) “What’s the name of the partner (baby father)?” A dumb stare then a mumbled ‘Zingy’. I sigh and drop the pen. “What’s his real name?” She looks at me then turns to her mother for help. A quiet and distressing (for me) half a minute passes. The mother asks me to wait while she goes outside to ascertain the man’s name.

Sasha D., responding to a Jamaica Gleaner blog post, shares her own story of being a pregnant teen. She says the only thing that saved her was her mother:

At age 17, fresh out of High School, innocent to the world and ignorant of men, I found myself pregnant after partying for one single night. Boyfriend, who had been only just that, took advantage of the fact that he was leaving the island, and I was too drunk to say no! And so after 2 minutes…perhaps seconds..of ruckus…that’s exactly what it was I think….I became pregnant.

Who did I turn to? Mom! Mom was hurt, upset, angry, mad, ashamed even….but she locked it all in, and stood by me….every step of the way. And because of that I got the courage, the inspiration to move on ahead after the baby was born. I went back to school, graduated from college, and went on to University.

Sasha D.’s story is apparently not the norm. Only 34 percent of adolescent mothers return to school after giving birth in Jamaica. The March study adds that adolescent pregnancy also contributes to increased maternal and child morbidity and mortality, and a decreased likelihood of mom becoming gainfully employed.

Bob, also responding to the Jamaica Gleaner blog post, proposes one solution to help bring down teen pregnancy rates. He says:

Most Jamaican parents are so ashamed of their body parts, and their sexuality that they cant discuss sex with their young teenage daughters. And they don’t know that bu doing so it will come to bite them in the butt. when you don’t teach your kids how can you blame them?

Others argue that Jamaica’s abortion laws need to be loosened, so women and teenage girls have access to safe and legal abortions. A blog post on The Perception and Self-Perception of Women and Their Effects on Health Globally elaborates on these laws:

Most Jamaican parents are so ashamed of their body parts, and their sexuality that they cant discuss sex with their young teenage daughters. And they don’t know that bu doing so it will come to bite them in the butt. when you don’t teach your kids how can you blame them?

Jamaican Gordon Swaby blogs about his belief that abortion should be legalized in Jamaica. He says:

Who the hell decides what i can and cannot do with an unborn child, it’s rubbish i tell you. So many children are being born in unprepared and immature families. These idiots prefer a child to be born and end up on the streets because there parents could not take care of them, and it’s not like the state has an effective system in place to take care of these children, leave a decision like that to the couple, not religious groups, it might be ungodly in a Christian’s eyes, but let’s face it, not every one is a Christian, therefore not everyone follow the principles of Christianity, if they are going to make the decision not to legalize abortion in Jamaica, don’t do it on a religious basis, do it on a logical one.

Other solutions the study suggests to combat teen pregnancy include encouraging adolescents to delay when they first have sex and discouraging multiple partnerships. It also says that gender-based violence needs to be addressed at the community level.

Thinkbass adds that women and girls also need to start respecting themselves. She says:

There are many pregnant teenagers with their soon to be 30 year old grandmothers. There are many women on their fifth or more pregnancy and desirous of more – cause di man wan’ more. A few HIV positive mothers NOT in their first pregnancy (one was in her ninth). And I am amused. For in the last hours they are all screaming and calling to God for help. One even asking what she did to deserve this! But never once have I heard any of them scream: ‘Never again. Ah doan want no more.’

When did our women become receptacles, dumping grounds for men’s sperms? When was it legalised for us to insult our bodies with effluence? When did we decide it was ‘ok’ for us to torture our flowers at young ages with penises too brutal and babies too big? When did men rule our bodies? How is it that what they want is gospel even if it means our death?

Photo of Jamaican Girls by marco annunziata on Flickr.

This blog-post was originally published  at Global Voices.