Congo-Kenya Trip 2019

“Trauma is the mission field of the 21st century.” -Diane Langberg, PhD.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On July 25 to August 14, 2019, I traveled with a team of 4 others to Nairobi, Kenya.  While there, I met with the Congo Initiative staff to learn about their work and specifically the work of the Bethesda Counseling Center (BCC) located in Beni, DRC.   I hope to provide ongoing counseling support to the BCC in the future. I and the team I was with lead Healing Wounds of Trauma trainings with 50 teachers of the Soweto Academy (High School, Primary School, and Nursery Staff). Soweto Academy is located in Kibera Slums, one of the largest urban slums in Africa.  Finally, we Healing Wounds of Trauma Groups with 50 refugee teenagers and youth from the African Great Lakes Region i.e. Burundians, Congolese and Rwandans residing and studying in Nairobi. The parents and or guardians of these teenagers and youth fled their conflict-prone countries many years ago.

Additionally, I am communicating with Alain Mukwege about the work of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu.  You can read about it here.

In the fall of 2023, I was able up to travel to Goma and Beni, DRC and I am hoping to continue these relationships, begun over the past few years and especially recently, to provide long-term support for the work of healing trauma in these war-torn, sexually violent regions.

Additionally, I have provided trainings at local Churches in the Healing Wounds of Trauma curriculum.  This curriculum is used in 100 countries around the world and is having a profound impact on those who experience it.

You can follow this important work at Congo Can Heal on Facebook and donate to the work of healing trauma through GiveSendGo by searching Congo Can Heal.

Further Information on Trauma in the Congo:

  • A study due to be published in June in the American Journal of Public Health found that 48 women are raped in the DRC every hour (1152 every day) and that sexual abuse was rampant in the home as well as in conflict areas.  

  • One woman every minute is subjected to some form of sexual abuse.

  • The DRC is known as the rape capital of the world.

  • Many of these woman and young girls have been gang raped and go on to be abandoned by their husbands and villages because of the stigma of rape.

  • A weak government and coveted, rich mineral resources are driving armed conflict over these mineral fields.

  • ⅔ of the world's’ supply of Cobalt (a byproduct of copper-nickel extraction and needed in lithium-ion batteries in all devices) is in a small area of the Congo.  Child labor in these copper mines is rampant. Most of these mines are controlled by armed gunmen who are known for terrorizing local residents through pillaging, forced labor and sexual assaults on women and girls.

  • Reporting is complicated and believed to be inadequate and inconsistent.  The Panzi Foundation in Bukavu reported yearly, the number of women treated for sexualized violence during the span of  2004-2015. 1,177 was the lowest in 2011 and 2600 the highest, leaving off with 1,877 in 2015. Why the swing in numbers?  Comparisons are difficult to make because the UN Refugee Agency has changed how they collect information. It is unclear if the perpetrators are armed groups, the Congolese army, mainly in the east or civilians.

  • The number of reported violations are believed to be the tip of the iceberg.

  • An emerging area of great concern is the high levels of vicious rapes committed by civilians, many of which were former soldiers who are taking their trauma out on their families and neighbors.

  • Trauma from the genocide in Rwanda has spilled into the Congo.

  • The government and legal systems are corrupt.

  • Intense poverty is rampant.

  • Ebola and loss are devastating parts of the Congo.