Monday

On Monday, Dr Mukwege meets the whole project group for the first time and we discussed the road ahead for the project. The hospital in Panzi has quite a few doctors but lacking trauma treatment and psychologists for patients/victims and health care personal experiences. The patients for being victims and the health care personal for experience the hideous crimes that the patients have been exposed to.

There is many people working with trauma treatment in DR Congo but the projects are often small, ill coordinated and seldom have any ground in science. This has in many case lead to make the situation worse for the patient. By using well-grounded psychological methods combined with ICT we can spread the education to a lot of health care workers and let other projects use and improve our material.

Tuesday

The day started with a seminar and ended with a dinner arranged by leadership consultants Svennerstål & Partners where Dr. Mukwege told about his work at the hospital, what is needed and the way forward. The situation are not getting better in DR Congo, there is a war going on about controlling the vast natural resources. A war where rape is the weapon rather then guns. But we all can do something, if we want!

This is Dr. Mukweges speech at the dinner translated into English from Swedish Stina Berge at Yennenga Process who also are the project manager.

“Everyone here present knows what happened yesterday. I raise my voice to give voice to those who have no voice. Your commitment is a way of breaking the silence, crushing indifference. To die indifference is the worst death. Everyone has the opportunity to influence. To do nothing is also to act – it is to accept. I know that your presence here tonight is a way to manifest that you do not accept the brutal violence of these people suffer. Your commitment strengthens me, strengthens those who are exposed to abuse and our work for change. You have all positions to implement real change. I am honored and very warm to my heart that you shared this evening with me and show your commitment. Thank you”.

We are discussing to start a project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) about Treating traumatised women and their families.

The DRC has meet important difficulties during this long and terrifying war. The infrastructure and national institutions cannot meet the needs of the population. The civil society is therefore crucial for the development of the country, both regarding health, education and development work. Dr Mukwege and his crew have been working actively in the Kivu province for many years, they are well known and they have the confidence of the population. They have both the theoretical knowledge and the experience needed to carry out its work.

Dr. Mukwege. Picture source http://www.fistulafoundation.org/img/DrMukwege.jpg/

Because of the difficult political situation in the DRC, with thousands and thousands of women, of all ages, being raped in the most horrible way, we need to make it possible to give the women affected, as well as their families, psychological treatment. We need to educate social workers, hospital personnel and other officials on the subject on meeting the special needs of the violated women and their families,

The victims are spread over a big geographical area, which makes it impossible to use only the facilities of the Panzi Hospital in Bukawu.

Dr Mukwege sees an urgent need of an expansive treatment and knowledge spread. We are therefore creating a project aiming at spreading trauma therapeutic knowledge to a large number of people in a short period of time. The psychiatrist at Mukwege Fuondation, together with the social-worker, is responsible for the coordination and the structure of education of all persons working with the victims of rape and their families.

Our part in the project is to create an e-learning course in trauma therapy and to work with the pedagogical issues connected to ICT.