John Deere 310c Tires

News Bulletin from

The International Free Protestant Episcopal Church
Rape as a weapon of war is being used in many countries worldwide to target defenseless people, children, and usually women. The underlying message is that if was in a state is so weak as to allow this to happen, how can it possibly have the moral and political strength to govern a population? But there are other reasons beyond the weakness of a state. Those who rape women and children do it because it is easier to attack a defenseless person than it is to attack one who has the means to defend him-or herself. If we tolerate rape, we have no rights to call us Christians and to be a civilized nation.
'I was like dead': The 17-year-old Safi says their ordeal is over and no respect no borders. In the wars of our age girls and women are raped or deliberately abused for years. In the embattled north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UNICEF supported a hospital for victims of violence. The 17-year-old Safi talks about her ordeal. When it just ahead of an evening two years of her hut, knocked thought Safi (name changed) and her family to visit the neighbors. Instead, six armed men crowded in. and demanded money. When they found none, they turned their guns on the father and ordered him to sleep with his own daughter. Desperate, the father asked for mercy - but the militia only laughed and shot him and the mother before the eyes of children. Safi was seized by three men who abducted and brutally raped in the bush. "It was like a bad movie," says the girl who now lives in a hospital supported by UNICEF in the provincial capital Goma. "I could not believe that I am really there ground lay. "For over a year, the militia Safi caught stopped. Before the men now left to loot, they raped Safi. When they came back at night, she was again abused. As punishment for an escape attempt, they beat the defenseless girl so much that before . was pain impotent "At some point I was no longer a man, I was like dead," says Safi She realized that she was pregnant by one of her tormentors was desperation, she ventured a last attempt to escape -.. and he succeeded Safi was up to. penetrate the Goma hospital where they received medical treatment. "nurses were not so kind to me, I would have killed me," says the now 17-year-old. For the doctors of the organization "Doctors on Call for Services (DOCS) is the young woman not an isolated case: Since April 2003, they have treated in the Congo more than a thousand raped women and young girls. Some of them have suffered such severe internal injuries that they have to undergo surgery several times. UNICEF helps to expand the hospital and a new station set up specifically for the girls. Doctors are also UNICEF medicines and bandages. To help the girls to return to their village, UNICEF supported the training of volunteers for the psycho-social care and provides small loans so that the victims can build up an existence. On 7 January came Safi Child into the world, a healthy boy. Safi called him - after one of her supervisors at the hospital - Fred. Even in the first weeks of life the boy has brought a wonderful twist. Safi seems to forget their ordeal when she holds him in her arms. It has gained renewed interest in life and even found a new home: An aunt, who survived the war, will take up Safi and Fred.