Feminist playwright Eve Ensler has a new strategy to help Congolese women who suffer limitless sexual violence, being raped in ritualistic and sadistic ways by the armed groups of the eastern Congo.

Tired of a focus on the UN, reforming the Congolese military, giving yet more aid dollars and pushing harder to regulate so-called conflict minerals to cut off the revenue supply to rebels, Eve Ensler is taking a new approach.

“You build an army of women,” she said. “And when you have enough women in power, they take over the government and they make different decisions. You’ll see. They’ll say ‘Uh-uh, we’re not taking this any longer,’ and they’ll put an end to this rape problem fast.” via NYTimes

This weekend Eve Ensler opened her new home base in Congo City of Joy, as a campus where most of the women are rape victims. Her learning academy where only 180 women will learn skills, self-defense, trades and farming coupled with trauma therapy sessions and dance hopes that these women will return to their villages with skills and confidence.

The NYT reports that when City of Joy opened on Friday, hundreds of women, most rape victims, wore black T-shirts that read, “Stop the rape of our most precious resource.” Some danced with shovels and trowels used to build City of Joy.

Most important, the government that has done nothing to stop the rape of women in Congo sent a large delegation. On Saturday, the women crowded around Eve Ensler before she left, honoring her with a wooden carving of mother and child.

“Why did you accept to carry us? We will never leave you to the end.”

The stories of women in the Congo are absolutely heartbreaking, as they endure a life of extraordinary cruelty. We have many stories and video of these beautiful women of the world in more of Anne’s writings below.

Featured