V-Season 2009 On Pace To Be Largest To Date: Registration Still Open!

Since registration opened in October, over 1,000 V-Day organizers have signed up to produce V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Any One Of Us: Words From Prison and screenings of V-Day's Until The Violence Stops and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You in their colleges, high schools and communities.

From Bangkok to Belgrade, Rwanda to Rhode Island, V-Day organizers everywhere are bringing the issue of violence against women to the forefront of their communities and raising funds to help end it.

In addition, V-Day is proud to announce that over 500 women and men have already registered to hold Congo Teach-Ins with their family, friends and neighbors. V-Day is partnering with the Enough Project and STAND to offer this downloadable PowerPoint presentation about the crisis in the DRC. The PowerPoint is designed to educate individuals and communities about the history and current situation in the DRC. It is a powerful tool to activate and motivate the public to put pressure on elected officials and raise awareness and funds for V-Day projects on the ground.

Registration to hold a V-Day benefit event in your community is still open.

Apply Now

Sign Up on vday.org to Hold a Congo Teach-In

V-Day Announces February "Turning Pain To Power Tour" Featuring Dr. Mukwege & Eve

To coordinate with our V-Season 2009 and our Spotlight on the Women and Girls of the Congo, we are excited to announce the February TURNING PAIN TO POWER TOUR. Dr. Denis Mukwege, Director and Founder of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eve will tour five major cities in the US - New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington DC - to get the word out about violence against women and girls in the DRC and the efforts to end it. This tour will have a direct impact on what is happening in the DRC--a country rich in natural resources but weighed down by years of war and atrocities--by raising awareness and critical funds to save lives and provide refuge and support to a new wave of women leaders.

Dr. Mukwege is the godfather of the growing V-Men's movement. On the tour, he will address what motivates men to commit these crimes, and what men need to do and who they need to become to stop it. By sharing firsthand accounts and a psychological and physical understanding of sexual violence, Dr. Mukwege will shed light on what he calls 'sexual terrorism.' Through his work at Panzi, the doctor is modeling another way of being a man. By illustrating that it is not the majority of men who are raping in the Congo, but that the majority are silent there and everywhere, he encourages both men and women to be bold and stand up for the women of Congo.

The tour will be comprised of a series of educational and fundraising events. In each city, Eve will conduct a public interview with Dr. Mukwege about how to stop the ongoing femicide, what causes this level of violence and what life is like for women in the Congo.

Tour Schedule*

Wednesday, February 11, 8PM - New York, NY
"Turning Pain To Power in the Congo - Dr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve Ensler"
92nd Street Y - Kaufmann Concert Hall - Lexington at 92nd Street, NYC
Tickets: $27, on sale now
For tickets and more info, visit
http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T%2DLC5WL10

Saturday, February 14, 8PM - Los Angeles, CA
V-Day USC Performance of "The Vagina Monologues" with special guest speakers Eve Ensler and Dr. Denis Mukwege
Location: USC Campus
Tickets: ticket information to be announced

Wednesday, February 18, 6PM - Redwood City, CA
The World Affairs Council and Global Philanthropy Forum host Dr. Denis Mukwege interviewed by Eve Ensler
Location: Redwood City, location to be announced
Tickets: ticket information to be announced

Thursday, February 19, 8PM - San Francisco, CA
City Arts & Lectures "Art & Politics" features Dr. Denis Mukwege interviewed by Eve Ensler,
Location: Herbst Theater, San Francisco
Tickets: $20, on sale now
For tickets and more info, visit http://www.cityarts.net/n.mukwege.html

Sunday, February 22, 2PM - Atlanta, GA
Dr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve Ensler
Location: The Carter Center
Tickets: ticket information to be announced

Wednesday, February 25 - Washington, DC (date to be confirmed)
Dr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve Ensler
Location: Howard University
Tickets: ticket information to be announced

*Events subject to change

Dr. Denis Mukwege Awarded United Nations Prize

Dr. Denis Mukwege of the Panzi Hospital in the DRC has been named winner of The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for 2008. Previous recipients of the award include Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Reverend Dr. Martin L. King.

Dr. Mukwege is the Director and Founder of the groundbreaking Panzi General Referral Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where he performs life-saving fistula surgeries on girls and women who have been brutally raped and mutilated in the Congolese war.

V-Day and UNICEF have partnered with the Panzi Hospital to build the City of Joy, a safe house project which will be a refuge for healed women, survivors of rape and torture who have been left without family and community. City of Joy will offer a safe haven, providing educational and income-generating opportunities, and support women in becoming the next leaders of the DRC.

The City of Greensboro breaks the Silence

CONGOCAST.ORG

Congocast.org Trailer from Congocast.org on Vimeo.

The Story

Robin Tabbiner and Wendy Merritt are from Wilmington, North Carolina, a beach town where life moves at a slower pace - a town where it's not uncommon to wear flip-flops to the office or leave work early with your surfboard in tow.

The women met in 2005, when Robin joined Wendy’s small group, a women’s bible study she lead through Port City Community Church. Robin, who had graduated from college the spring before, had been planning a move to Africa - she was just waiting for the right time and opportunity. Wendy was leading a very “normal” life – after college, she had settled down in Wilmington, bought a house and was working for a local mortgage brokerage firm; it had never crossed her mind to pick up and move halfway around the world.

Over time, it became clear to both women that their paths had crossed for a reason; within one year of meeting each other, they would move to the Democratic Republic of Congo to serve women and girls victimized by sexual violence. Through an organization called Answering the Call, Robin and Wendy were connected with a pastor in eastern Congo. Upon entering the Congo in August 2006, they rented a house and began building relationships with rape victims, serving children at two feeding centers and organizing events for local youth.

Once we learned of their plans to move to a country that our own State Department warns us to stay away from, we knew we had to tell their story. For three months before Robin and Wendy left for Congo, we spent time interviewing them, as well as their families and friends; they left the country armed with a video camera and plenty of tapes to document their experience, hopeful that their story and the stories of the Congolese women and children they went to serve would move us to get involved. Here’s how you can.

TO FOLLOW MORE OF THE STORY AND TO CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE VISIT: www.congocast.org

Model Spotlight: Noella Coursaris Musunka

Some of you might be thinking where is Congo in the grand scheme of things when it comes to the fashion world. We're barely seen behind the scenes; as designers, producers, the crew and lastly, models. Well we're out there and I happen to stumble across some drop dead gorgeous, underestimated talent. This is the first post in the Spotlight Model series.

Meet Noella Coursaris Musunka
"Noella Coursaris Musunka began her journey on the soil of the congo where a Congolese mother and Cyprus father brought her into this world.This example of Femine pulchritude embodies the zest, the vim and spontaineity of women that know they are inherently beautiful. As you would come to see,Noella burst with radiant energy and ardant love for life and humanity, in person and spurring out of her pictures, This Vigour extends to her professional as well as personal life.

Noella is perceived by many as a vessel of the enrichment darting from transculturalism. The congolese born, swiss educated , got her modeling career started off after she did the Agent Provocateur campaign , the well known lingerie compagnie.

Cheeky,hard working,focused such is Noella as a model. Her works include projects with entities such as IPOD,Virgin Mobile,Barclays,CDS covers... Various covers and magazines such as Cosmopolitan,Essence,GQ,New Women,Vixen, Mens Health,Arena,Pride... She also participated to a few video projects,the latest being the video of renowned UK artist Craig David.

Resolute,levelheaded and ambitious such is Noella as a business person.

Noella desires to utilize being one of the rare congolese model succesful internationaly and exercice social leadership in the Congo. She hopes to start a residential institution for the care and education of orphans.

They say that a book is a story for the mind and a song a story for the soul,Noella is a story for the eyes.

Somewhere from the heaven,her dearly loved father must be smiling at the unfolding of events in his daughter's life.

Written by Frederic N'sienie

The Game in DRC

The Game and crew recently embarked upon an African/European tour. The Game happened to make a stop in "Kin-sasha." He mesmerized the crowd with not only his music, but some of political views.
Peep the vid.

Worlds Aids Day

Yesterday was Worlds Aid Day. The purpose of WAD is to promote education and awareness about AIDS and HIV. WAD began in 1988 when a summit of health ministers saw that a united global effort was needed to stop the spreading of HIV. Check out Worlds aids day.org for more info.
Facts and Figures
International Figs
People living with HIV:
33 million people living with HIV worldwide
30.8 million adults
15.5 million women
2.0 million children under 15

Be Safe...Wrap it Up.

It's a striking example of how a little love can overcome a whole lot of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rebels and the government, who have blighted lush Nord-Kivu province with months of fighting, have cut a unique deal to allow armed park rangers back into the famed Virunga reserve to care for its long-neglected gorillas.

Read More...

In light of the escalating humanitarian and human rights crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Amnesty International will be holding an International Day of Action on November 23. AI USA will organize an emergency rally in front of the White House at 2pm on Sunday, November 23, in order to raise awareness about the crisis. We will call on the US government to support the UN peacekeeping mission and to commit to a long term involvement in human rights issues in the region.

For more information please see our DRC country website at www.amnestyusa.org/drc and our flyers:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdf/drcflyer.pdf
http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdf/drcflyersimple.pdf (printer friendly)

Nations failing on Congo crisis

Nations are abdicating their responsibility by failing to provide enough military aid to the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as it struggles to stop brutal violence, the head of Oxfam International in the Congo said Thursday.

"There appears to be no urgency in the international community's talks on the crisis, but this is a deeply urgent situation. The world is failing in its responsibility to protect the Congo's innocent civilians," Juliette Prodhan said in a written statement.

"There has been an increase in incidents of forced labor, rape and widespread brutality," according to assessments carried out by the humanitarian group over the past week, Prodhan said. "Armed men from all sides prey upon those who have sought 'sanctuary' from the fighting in North Kivu (province)."

Fighting broke out in the province at the end of August between government forces and rebels led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda.

Read the full story.

"I feel that when they brought us across that slave ship only the strongest survived. Now the workers of the plantation are now in control. My grandmother text me!" Derrick Williams, Durham, North Carolina

"Black people in America are strong!" Vaugnt Mavakala, Paris, France

"Africa has been watching since day one. Change is now!" Lewif, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

How we fuel Africa's bloodiest war

The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again – and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a 'tribal conflict' in 'the Heart of Darkness'. It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by 'armies of business' to seize the metals that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.

Every day I think about the people I met in the war zones of eastern Congo when I reported from there. The wards were filled with women who had been gang-raped by the militias and shot in the vagina. The battalions of child soldiers – drugged, dazed 13-year-olds who had been made to kill members of their own families so they couldn't try to escape and go home. But oddly, as I watch the war starting again on CNN, I find myself thinking about a woman I met who had, by Congolese standards, not suffered in extremis.

I was driving back to Goma from a diamond mine one day when my car got a puncture. As I waited for it to be fixed, I stood by the roadside and watched the great trails of women who stagger along every road in eastern Congo, carrying all their belongings on their backs in mighty crippling heaps. I stopped a 27 -year-old woman called Marie-Jean Bisimwa, who had four little children toddling along beside her. She told me she was lucky. Yes, her village had been burned out. Yes, she had lost her husband somewhere in the chaos. Yes, her sister had been raped and gone insane. But she and her kids were alive.

I gave her a lift, and it was only after a few hours of chat along on cratered roads that I noticed there was something strange about Marie-Jean's children. They were slumped forward, their gazes fixed in front of them. They didn't look around, or speak, or smile. 'I haven't ever been able to feed them,' she said. 'Because of the war.'

Their brains hadn't developed; they never would now. 'Will they get better?' she asked. I left her in a village on the outskirts of Goma, and her kids stumbled after her, expressionless.

There are two stories about how this war began – the official story, and the true story. The official story is that after the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu mass murderers fled across the border into Congo. The Rwandan government chased after them. But it's a lie. How do we know? The Rwandan government didn't go to where the Hutu genocidaires were, at least not at first. They went to where Congo's natural resources were – and began to pillage them. They even told their troops to work with any Hutus they came across. Congo is the richest country in the world for gold, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite, and more. Everybody wanted a slice – so six other countries invaded.

These resources were not being stolen to for use in Africa. They were seized so they could be sold on to us. The more we bought, the more the invaders stole – and slaughtered. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo. The UN named the international corporations it believed were involved: Anglo-America, Standard Chartered Bank, De Beers and more than 100 others. (They all deny the charges.) But instead of stopping these corporations, our governments demanded that the UN stop criticising them.

There were times when the fighting flagged. In 2003, a peace deal was finally brokered by the UN and the international armies withdrew. Many continued to work via proxy militias – but the carnage waned somewhat. Until now. As with the first war, there is a cover-story, and the truth. A Congolese militia leader called Laurent Nkunda – backed by Rwanda – claims he needs to protect the local Tutsi population from the same Hutu genocidaires who have been hiding out in the jungles of eastern Congo since 1994. That's why he is seizing Congolese military bases and is poised to march on Goma.

It is a lie. François Grignon, Africa Director of the International Crisis Group, tells me the truth: 'Nkunda is being funded by Rwandan businessmen so they can retain control of the mines in North Kivu. This is the absolute core of the conflict. What we are seeing now is beneficiaries of the illegal war economy fighting to maintain their right to exploit.'

At the moment, Rwandan business interests make a fortune from the mines they illegally seized during the war. The global coltan price has collapsed, so now they focus hungrily on cassiterite, which is used to make tin cans and other consumer disposables. As the war began to wane, they faced losing their control to the elected Congolese government – so they have given it another bloody kick-start.

Yet the debate about Congo in the West – when it exists at all – focuses on our inability to provide a decent bandage, without mentioning that we are causing the wound. It's true the 17,000 UN forces in the country are abysmally failing to protect the civilian population, and urgently need to be super-charged. But it is even more important to stop fuelling the war in the first place by buying blood-soaked natural resources. Nkunda only has enough guns and grenades to take on the Congolese army and the UN because we buy his loot. We need to prosecute the corporations buying them for abetting crimes against humanity, and introduce a global coltan-tax to pay for a substantial peacekeeping force. To get there, we need to build an international system that values the lives of black people more than it values profit.

Somewhere out there – lost in the great global heist of Congo's resources – are Marie-Jean and her children, limping along the road once more, carrying everything they own on their backs. They will probably never use a coltan-filled mobile phone, a cassiterite- smelted can of beans, or a gold necklace – but they may yet die for one.

Sources: Johann Hari
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Independent. UK

Vigil in Support of the Congo, Friday October 31, 2008

The situation in the Congo has escalated tremendously in recent days. Congo Global Action, Friends of the Congo, the Africa Faith and Justice Network and their allies are asking all people of goodwill and those who participated in Congo Week to participate in a vigil in support of the people of the Congo.

There will be a vigil in front of the Rwanda Embassy on Friday, October 31, 2008 from 4 pm to 6 pm EST. The vigil will address the escalation of tensions in the East of Congo and Rwanda's implication in the instability in the region.

The location of the vigil is:

Rwanda Embassy
1714 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009

For questions, call 1-888-584-6510 or 202-884-9780 or send an email to info@friendsofthecongo.org

IT IS TIME THAT THE WORLD ADDRESSES THE CONGO ISSUE. BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION, JOIN US AND BREAK THE SILENCE AROUND THE CONGO!

If you are not able to make it to Washington, DC, organize a vigil in your community in support of the people of the Congo.

Stay abreast of the latest updates by visiting the FOTC blog or joining our Twitter network

Congo rebel general says he wants talks

GOMA, Congo — The rebel general besieging this provincial capital said Thursday he wants direct talks with the Congo government about ending the fighting and his objections to a $9 billion deal that gives China access to vast mineral riches in exchange for a railway and highway.

Laurent Nkunda told The Associated Press in a telephone interview he also wants the urgent disarmament of a Rwandan Hutu militia that he accuses of preying on his minority Tutsi people.

Nkunda launched a low-level rebellion three years ago claiming Congo's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi, and despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, resumed fighting in August. He alleges the Congolese government has not protected the Tutsi from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter half a million Rwandan Tutsis in 1994. Nkunda says government troops are collaborating with the Rwandan Hutus, a claim Congo denies.

"It's not acceptable for government soldiers to be fighting alongside genociders," Nkunda said. "We want peace for people in the region."

Click here to "Read Full Article."

Recap of Congo Week

Last week was Breaking the Silence Congo Week. Several events took place all over to bring awareness towards the ongoing violence and struggle in the DRC. Pictures on that soon to come.

Cong Week Is Here

Tomorrow marks the begining of the international week long student run awareness for Congo. Please support the activities that are set to take place on your campus or campuses around you. And rememeber awarness is the first step.

Meanwhile...Blogging is a fairly new form of communication that has caught wild fire globally. Regardless of police run states and mass censorship, individuals have found a way to inform others about what is taking place in Africa. Thankfully, most blogging sites are free to the public making it not only convient but economical. Please take some time to check out blogging in Africa.
http://current.com/items/88844576_african_bloggers_fight_against_bad_governance

This week your home...next week the World

Break the Silence Congo Week is set to start next week on the 19th. And several universities, organizations and associations are prepraing major festivities to raise awareness of the plight of Congo. We here at drc144k seek to spread awareness of the Democratic Republic of Congo through all means possible. Fashion is just another way for us to express our heritage, pride and history. Please join us and several others in Breaking the Silence.
"The purpose of Break the Silence Congo Week is to raise awareness about the devastating situation in the Congo and mobilize support on behalf of the people of the Congo. It will take place from Sunday October 19th to Saturday October 25th. The key organizers are students from North Carolina A&T , UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, University of Maryland, Howard University, Bowie University, and Cornell University (Congoweek.org)."
Check out http://congoweek.org/

What War Looks Like

Grand Theft Congo - DRC

Check this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1FQmUQ1-mM&feature=related

The DRC army captures towns in enduring conflict - 06Dec07