More Vicious Than Rape

The atrocity reports from eastern Congo were so hellish that Western medical experts refused to believe them—at first.

Nov. 13, 2006 - Warning: do not read this story if you are easily disturbed by graphic information, or are under age, or are easily upset by accounts of gruesome sexual violence

This is about fistulas—and rape, which in Congo has become the continuation of war by other means. Fistulas are a kind of damage that is seldom seen in the developed world. Many obstetricians have encountered the condition only in their medical texts, as a rare complication associated with difficult or abnormal childbirths: a rupture of the walls that separate the vagina and bladder or rectum. Where health care is poor, particularly where trained doctors or midwives are not available, fistulas are more of a risk. They are a major health concern in many parts of Africa. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704030/site/newsweek/

How To Help
Many readers have written NEWSWEEK to ask how they can help the victims of rape in the Eastern Congo, and how they can reach the hospitals and aid programs that work with them. Here is a partial list of the most prominent:
HEAL Africa Hospital, Goma: www.healafrica.org

Email contact:
info@healafrica.org.

www.panzihospitalbukavu.org

info@panzihospitalbukavu.org

In addition, the U.S.-based International Rescue Committee has a program that works with victims of sexual violence in the Congo:
www.theIRC.org/helpcongo.

And Medecins Sans Frontieres' Swiss Section supports a hospital in Bunia, Bom Marche, which treats hundreds of rape victims every month:
mailto:emailMSFCH-Bunia-Sat@msf.org

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