Mama Muliri Visits New Windsor

A Voice from the Gender-Based Violence Frontline

In responding to gender-based violence (GBV) in the DRC, 'Hospitals and treatment centers alone cannot bring change,' said Mama Jeanne Muliri Kabekatyo, on a visit recently to the IMA office in New Windsor. Mama Muliri, senior counselor with HEAL Africa and the chair of the Protestant Women's Organization in her home province of North Kivu, made her remarks in a presentation together with Judith Anderson, HEAL's representative in the United States. HEAL, under the vibrant leadership of Lyn and Jo Lusi, have treated thousands of victims of rape and abuse in eastern Congo, many in the HEAL disability hospital located in Goma.

In the past eight years, Mama Muliri and other counselors have worked with over 30,000 men, women, victims and traditional leaders to address GBV as a health and social issue. Women suffering with vasicovaginal fistula (VVF), often the result of rape and lack of adequate medical care are advised to come out of the shadows of their despair and seek treatment. 'We are seeing some successes,' declared Mama Muliri, 'after our efforts one village chief made the courageous decision to punish his own son for rape.'

IMA World Health, through the USAID-funded Project AXxes, works closely with HEAL in the war-torn provinces of eastern Congo to provide counseling and treatment for survivors of GBV.