Between 2017 and 2021, Common Threads Project collaborated with the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation and Panzi Hospital to support trauma healing for survivors of gender-based violence in Eastern Congo. The program trained 25 local clinicians and directly reached 150 survivors.
Background
Since the 90’s, conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in the deaths of over 6 million people and millions more displaced. Sexual violence has been rampant and met with impunity.
Our Partners
Founded by Nobel laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, Panzi Foundation and Hospital is working to end rape in war and help survivors of sexual violence rebuild their lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Mukwege Foundation, founded in 2016, is an international, survivor-centred, rights-based organisation working to change the response to conflict-related sexual violence.
Our Work
In August 2017, 15 Congolese psychologists and psychosocial assistants participated in our experiential training course. They prepared to lead multiple CTP healing circles at Maison Dorcas of Panzi Foundation in Bukavu, and in the mining zones of Kamituga and Luhwindja, where sexual violence and exploitation of women has been most pervasive.
The local staff embraced the CTP approach as their own. They named the program “Kamba Moja,” Swahili for “the thread that unites us” and conducted three healing circles during the initial one-year pilot.
In 2019, another intensive training for psychosocial staff at Panzi Foundation took place. The trained clinicians were prepared to facilitate circles to be held in Bukavu and in Kavumu in South Kivu province. The project launched three circles, including one for teens. The surveyed participants reported resoundingly positive results, finding the experience valuable and effective.
Healing circles continued to meet in 2020 and 2021 despite the many challenges brought on by the spread of COVID-19 and increased violence in the region.
“Forced to Marry My Rapist”, a story cloth created by a DRC participant
Pioneering a New Adaptation
In 2019, facilitators in DRC launched a pilot program designed to assist young teens and their babies born of rape. Because of intense stigma, most of these girls have been rejected by families and communities at a moment when they were most vulnerable.
Panzi Foundation provides them with a safe place and an opportunity to get the support they so desperately need. We worked with two Kamba Moja facilitators to develop a program geared to the particular needs of these young girls. Because of their developmental needs, the adapted program emphasized resilience and strength, rather than centering on the processing of past trauma.
The Kamba Moja team met an enormous challenge, and created a nurturing environment in which the girls could make significant recovery from trauma and loss.
View photos from the DRC
