IMA Awarded $16.5 Million Sexual & Gender Based Violence Grant

IMA World Health will help women in two war-torn provinces of the DRC

IMA is pleased to announce that USAID has awarded to IMA a new five-year, $16.5 million grant for overcoming the effects of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in North and South Kivu in the eastern D.R. Congo. he new project will be called USHINDI, which is a Swahili word meaning ‘victory’. IMA has for a decade been a leader in providing health care in the Congo through two USAID-funded programs.

Together with a consortium of local and international partners, including two highly regarded medical facilities, HEAL Hospital in Goma and Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the program provides medical treatment (including fistula repair), counseling, safe houses, and legal and economic assistance.

As women return to their communities, there will be access to a wide variety of income-generating activities so that livelihoods are restored and survivors are not a burden to the already economically-fragile social network. An essential feature of USHINDI is legal representation, providing funding for survivors to take perpetrators of SGBV to court, a giant step forward in addressing sexual violence in Africa.