Save a Girl
Conflict-related sexual violence against women and children continues unabated in DR Congo, according to our partners. Due to poverty, many young girls are forced into prostitution in order to survive.
These girls have no choice and their fate is sealed in the brothels where they fall victim to abuse, sexual exploitation and violence. Together with the Panzi Foundation under the leadership of Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize recipient 2018, Child Mercy Sweden runs the "Save a Girl" project that saves children from the sex trade in the city of Bukavu.
Safe House – a rescue station
This project started in 2017, after Child Mercy Sweden payed a visit to Bukavu and met Dr. Denis Mukwege. Since we entered a collaboration with Panzi Foundation in the purpose to help brothel children get a life in freedom, there are now four Safe Houses (so-called rescue stations), situated in different places in Bukavu. The girls who leaves the brothels are all between 10-14 years and very often traumatized and wounded. Together with 10 other girls, they get the chance to settle down in a safe home, with a house mama and a team ready to take care of them. They are offered medical care and also a psychologist through the Panzi hospital, when they are registered into the project. Rehabilitation is very crucial and the main purpose is for the children to heal and, in the long run, begin school and return home or to another relative. The children receives everything they need within the project, such as food, clothing, a bed to sleep in, health care, rehabilitation, discourse support, school material etc. It is not an easy process, a lot needs to be processed and and the children have deep wounds that need healing. Being affected by sexual violence leaves deep wounds.
Children with babies
Some of the girls have their own babies when they come to a Safe House. The babies are conceived as a result of the rapes the girls have been exposed to. Some of the girls are very young when they get pregnant, some only 11 years old. If the girls have their own babies when they come to a Safe House, the babies also receives health- and social care. Every year there is at least one girl who have a baby when leaving sex-slavery.
Local grassroots organizations
Through the local grassroots organizations SAJECEK and APACH, Panzi Foundation has work with the
"No sex-trafficking campaign". The goal is to inform and affect local authorities, churches, schools, brothels, night clubs, casinos etc. to visualize the cruel reality of the young girls working as sex-slaves. The great purpose is zero tolerance within sex-trafficking when it come to minors in Bukavu. According to Congolese law, it is a crime having sex with a child under the age of 18, despite consent or not. A very crucial part of this work is to have an ongoing conversation with the brothel owners, so they don't hire young girls. All to many children still live hidden and forgotten in brothels. The prosecutors are now more commonly held responsible for their actions and the brothel owners know what could happen if they do not obey the law. This do deter many of them to continue their exploitation. The local grassroots organizations consist of hundreds of volunteers who have extensive local knowledge. They have mapped that roughly 800 children under the age of 18 are used as sex-slaves in Bukavu, were they are tortured, beaten and raped regularly. These volunteers know where the children are and the children they meet when working, are often found in a bad condition and very traumatized.
The girls and their future
When the girls, after a year of rehabilitation and care, are ready to leave their Safe House, our co-workers have secured that the children return to a home able to take care of them. They continue to receive school support containing school books, school uniforms and tuition fees coverage, from Child Mercy Sweden when they return to their homes. This is necessary for them to be able to continue their education. Thanks to Child Mercy Sweden's and Dr. Denis Mukwege's initiative, we have a well functioning system that gives former, young sex-slaves a safe home and a brighter future. All good forces are needed to help women and children who are subjected to terrible abuse in DR Congo, among others. We know that the time spent in a Safe House will pave the way for young girls to see their self-worth and potential. We want to build the girls self-esteem and capacity to be well prepared for life, regarding vocational training and literacy but also income-generating activities.
All good forces are needed to make a change,
Dr. Mukwege use to say. We agree with that!
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Malibu, freed from sex slavery!
- My name is Malibu* and I am 14 years old and a mother. My parents separated when my five siblings and I still were small, and we then got to stay at my grandfathers house. Everything was well and I was registered in the school like every other child. But my life changed after my grandfather died.
I was then 11 years old and I moved to my mother's aunt. My life was filled with heavy household chores and I worked very hard every day. I had a friend who told me how it was possible to change my situation. She gave me food and clothes and told me that I also could eat, dress and take care of myself the way she did. I got very interested and the same day I left my mother's aunt to go to a brothel. My first night at the brothel was very painful and I got ill. My friend who had taken me to the brothel told me to try to endure, because as soon as I get used to the men, everything will get easier.
12 years old and pregnant
After a week at the brothel, I went back to my school with the money I have earned to continue studying, even though I was so tired. For the money I bought food and clothes. I don't even remember how many men I had to sleep with every day to get that much money. In addition to having sex with these men, I got beaten and some clients just walked away without paying. When I began to work at the brothel, I had not received my first period and I got pregnant without even knowing. One person asked me to make an abortion, but I refused because I was too afraid to die - my suffering was indescribably difficult. I stayed at the brothel during my pregnancy, but the owner threatened to kick me out since nobody was interested in me whilst being pregnant. My suffering was multiplied by 1000. I asked him over and over again to let me stay, because I didn't have anywhere to go, and so he agreed to.
Living at the brothel with a newborn
When it was time for me to give birth I was sent to the hospital in Bukavu without any money and with no clothes for my baby. I gave birth to a son and after three weeks at the maternity ward, I had to go back to the brothel with my baby. About a month later I got a visit in my room. They were from an organization called "APACH" and they asked a lot of questions, but I really only remember two of them: "Why are you here?" and "Are you proud of the life you live here?". They left me some money to cover my basic needs and a few days later they came back and asked me if I would like to leave the brothel. I said to them that it was my highest wish, but that I didn't have anywhere else to go. Me and my baby was registered to the project "Save a Girl", which the Panzi Foundation and Child Mercy Sweden run, to help girls from the brothels. I arrived there when I was 13 years old and my baby was two months. A lot of changes has happened in my life since then - the Safe House became my salvation.
May God bless Child Mercy Sweden and the founder of Panzi Foundation, Doctor Denis Mukwege. Thanks to you I got my smile back and the joy of living. My dreams for the future is to study hard to become a judge and to be able fight the impunity that prevails in my country. I wish that the project "Save a Girl" will help us girls to continue a higher level of education when it is time, and also that our children will be able to attend school when it is their time. Thank you for all that you do for me and my son and also for every girl who lives and works at the brothels here i Bukavu.
*Malibu has a different name in reality