Healing Rape Survivors in the Congo

From Utne Reader March-April 2010

Eleven years ago, the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the capital of the South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was built to be a maternity center—a place of healing for women displaced by war. Its medical director, Denis Mukwege, an obstetrician and gynecologist, wanted to stem rising maternal and infant mortality rates and repair fistulas. As the hospital opened, however, it became evident that it would fulfill a different need: Today 70 percent of its patients are survivors of rape.

Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped in the Congo in the past decade. In South Kivu alone, 14,200 rape cases were registered between 2005 and 2007. This extreme violence is not a side effect of a country in conflict: It is “the use of rape as a strategy,” reports The Progressive (Nov. 2009). Local armed groups and Rwandan militias use rape to systematically destroy communities. Populations are terrorized; families collapse as a result of the stigma; sexually transmitted infections spread. At the Panzi Hospital, one of three places in South Kivu equipped to handle such physical and psychological trauma, staff admit around 20 survivors a day. A third of them need major reconstructive surgery. One in ten will return after she is raped again.

Mukwege is undaunted. “[He] personifies a social movement that is taking place on the ground,” Brad Macintosh of SAFER (Social Aid for the Elimination of Rape) tells The Progressive. “He’s far too humble to admit it . . . but he is leading this social movement.” At Panzi, treating survivors of rape goes beyond tending to physical and psychological trauma: It means preparing for women’s reentry into society by coordinating with vocational programs; challenging a legal system that allows rapists to rape with impunity; and campaigning to raise global awareness.

“People need to see this,” Mukwege tells The Progressive. “I don’t want the U.S. or Canadian governments to say they don’t know. We appreciate the supplies and aid because there are shortages of everything here . . . but what we really need is to stop the war.”

http://www.utne.com/Science-Technology/Healing-Rape-Survivors-in-the-Congo.aspx

Bringing Glasses to the Masses

From Utne Reader March-April 2010

It’s estimated that 158 million of the world’s citizens experience vision loss and don’t have access to glasses. And the impairment doesn’t just affect a person’s quality of life—it has an economic impact.

Johns Hopkins Public Health (Fall 2009) reports that economist Kevin Frick and his colleagues studied the effect of poor vision on productivity and discovered that the global economy loses $121 to $269 billion annually due to a lack of corrective eyewear. To put it another way, for every person denied a pair of glasses, $1,000 is lost.

The problem is most prevalent in the developing world, notes physics professor and social entrepreneur Joshua Silver. He tells Ode (Nov. 2009) that “in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa there is one optometrist for every 8 million people.”

Silver has invented “Adspecs”—simple, highly affordable, nonprescription spectacles with adaptive lenses controlled by chambers of silicone oil. “If you fill the chamber with oil, the lens curves out; if you let the oil out of the chamber, the lens curves in,” he says, stressing that with just a few simple directions most anyone can adjust these glasses.

So far Silver has distributed about 30,000 Adspecs, which run about $19 a pair and are paid for by donations to his nonprofit, Global Vision 2020. The goal is to distribute a billion pairs in the next 10 years.

http://www.utne.com/Science-Technology/Bringing-Glasses-to-the-Masses.aspx

What's on your shoulder?

Glamour April 2010 page 83 Versace bag (cute!) Going price: $3,950

"Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases impacting poor children around the world. The disease kills more than 2,000 children every day and now is the #1 killer of children in many of the places where World Vision works.

Every $6 you give will provide a long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net that will protect the life of two or more children from this deadly disease. Since these nets can be used for approximately four years, that means you will save the life of a child for only 6 cents a month! It's one of the best investments you’ll ever make!" http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?funnel=dn&item=1849059&go=item&

One cute Versace bag = 658 treated mosquito nets = the potential to save a minimum of 1,316 children.

Getting back into the groove of things...

Graduation is over. I am now trying to catch up on all the things that went on the wayside while trying to do so. That means that the Who Cares? LLC website will be taken down as the host server is changing things, and I am going to take that as an opportunity to do some changing of my own.

I am going to start reading and blogging. I will still have items for sale, so if you are interested, please feel free to email me (since the site is down, I will have to use my personal email as well: jessicakristy@hotmail.com). I will try my best to figure out how to utilize this blogging site to make it easiest for you to learn, get motivated, purchase products for causes you want to support, and for you to spread the word about social issues that you care about.

Thanks for your understanding and support.

All the best to you!

Jessy