BECAUSE EVERY MAN, HOWEVER POWERFUL, CAME FROM A WOMAN, EVERY WOMAN SHOULD BE RESPECTED AND PROTECTED !

ACTIVITIES

We have centered our activities on the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu which is the place that receives most survivors of The Femicide since its beginning.

CONFERENCES and EVENTS

We attended, co-organized or participated in several conferences or fundraisings about the Femicide although they were not labeled with the word. Most of them rather mentioned the word "rape".

	March 2005, Dallas, Texas. We attended a fundraising organized by the Dallas Lawyers Association. $40,000 was raised to assist the victims being treated at Panzi hospital and those of the Olame Center in Bukavu. It was the first time we saw a video telling about the sexual tortures women were undergoing from foreign militia in the Kivu region of the Congo-Zaire.
	September 2007, New York. We participated in a V-Day conference to which we were invited by Christine Deschryver, V-Day Directice in Bukavu. It was from that conference that we decided to begin using the word "Femicide" instead of rape after a lady complained about the focus on rape in Africa while there was as much rape in the USA. We therefore decided to find a way to differentiate "rape" from the sexual tortures intended to sterilize women in the Kivu region of the Congo-Zaire.
	March 2008, Washington DC. We co-organized a conference for Congolese in with Dr. Mukwege and the Archbishop of South-Kivu, Xavier Maroy. It was the first time the Doctor spoke with Congolese citizens in a conference in the United States. It was also our first display of our logo on a t-shirt and an announcement to become an informative organization.
	October 2008, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina We spoke about The Femicide to students at different colleges and universities in the United States of America : - Howard Community College in Maryland. - Boston University in Massachusetts. - North Carolina University in Raleigh.
	November 2008, Toronto, Canada. We attended a conference hosted by the Stephen Lewis foundation at the University of Toronto, to raise awareness about The Femicide.
	December 2008, New York. We went to support Dr. Mukwege at the United Nations Human Rights ceremony in New York where he was awarded a plaque in recognition for his fight against The Femicide.
	February 2009, Atlanta, Georgia. We hosted a conference with Dr. Denis Mukwege with the support of V-Day and Kivu Rise. The purpose of the conference was to show to the US Congo-Zairean community that a hero can be made out of humanitarian action, not only politics as it is mostly believed in Congo-Zaire.
	March 2010, Washington DC We participated in a conference with Dr. Mukwege in Washington DC to review strategies and develop new ones with new partners for raising awareness about The Femicide. On the same occasion, we presented the re-designed logo and t-shirt to Dr. Mukwege.

IN THE FIELD

We visited the survivors in Bukavu and its outskirts three times since 2007.

	2007, Bukavu. We visited the victims at the Panzi hospital and donated some medical supplies for their treatment. It was the first time we had a face to face meeting with survivors of sexual tortures.
	2008, Bukavu, Kamituga, Uvira, Kiliba, Biriba, Mwenga, Kasika. We returned to Bukavu but this time went to see and hear directly from survivors in remote villages up in the hills and mountains of the region. We talked with survivors in Kamituga where we also had an opportunity to interview Doctor Kibala at the local hospital and address the issue of rapes with a local judge and a few men to hear their perspective on the matter. We then traveled with a team of Doctors and nurses from Panzi Hospital to the Uvira area to treat women and bring back to Bukavu those who need extensive care. Then we went to Kasika and Mwenga for the 10th anniversary of the atrocious massacre of the Royal Family and villagers in August 1998 by foreign militia. We also went on to visit the site where the same militia buried alive more than a dozen women in 1999. During that visit we saw for the first time at Panzi Hospital a male victim whose penis cas cut by the same foreign militia. It was also the first time that we met young girls, 13 and 14 years old, survivors of the rapes. The younger one was even pregnant from the rapists but visibly unaware of her situation. She was more interested in going to play with friends despite her much developed pregnancy.
	2010, Bukavu We went for several visits and interviews with young survivors, most of them ranging between 14 and 16 years old, with babies from the rapes, not knowing whose child that may be because so many men raped them. From that trip, we decided to go beyond informing about the Femicide but also become a movement and an organization to assist the victims directly.