In what has been called the “rape capital of the world” by a top UN official, Dr. Denis Mukwege offers hope to women whose attacks destroyed their bodies and now their lives. Before filling a desperate need and specializing in rape trauma surgery, Dr. Mukwege aspired to help women of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by providing better maternity care. In the DRC, one percent of women die during childbirth (to put it in perspective that is 1 for every 100 which makes Congolese women 8 more times likely to dye than in “developed countries,” where the number is on average of 12 in every 100,000).1 However, shortly after he founded the Panzi Hospital in 1999, Dr. Mukwege’s life took an entirely different course when his first patient was admitted. Instead of looking to have a baby, she sought treatment after suffering a rape where the assailants, from one of the many military groups in the DRC, had shot her in the genitals.2 Shortly after this event, the hospital cared for forty-eight baby girls, all raped by a local mans army, one of the tens of military, paramilitary, rebels, and foreign militant groups who use terror to displace locals and refugees in an attempt to secure natural resources.3 Luckily, these particular rapes stopped after the hospital and other human rights groups convinced a military court to prosecute the case.
Though Dr. Mukwege did not realize it at the time, founding his hospital in Eastern Congo would help him “become the world’s leading specialist in the treatment of wartime sexual violence and a global campaigner against the use of rape as a weapon of war.”4 Caring for more than 3,500 women per year, and sometimes up to 10 women a day, Dr. Mukwege, as well as 370 doctors, nurses and support staff, do more than simply repair women physically, they also work to improve their lives in many meaningful ways.5 They follow a five-pillar method. The hospital works with each woman to provide physical medical treatment, psycho-social therapy, socioeconomic support and training, community reintegration and, finally, legal assistance in done in the order listed. A senior advisor to Dr. Mukwege, Elizabeth Blackney, describes this program as:
“Once [women] get through [their] psycho social and medical healing, [they] move on and work with our socioeconomic pillar [to] learn literacy and numeracy and education. [Women] have a safe space to learn vocational skills. And then we of course provide legal aid and assistance to help people get justice.”6
This work is not done without risk, however, and, in 2012, shortly after giving a speech at the United Nations in which he called for an end to the corruption within the government of the DRC, and stated not enough was being done to stop “an unjust war that has used violence against women and rape as a strategy of war,” five armed men stormed the Mukwege family compound in an attempt to assassinate Dr. Mukwege, his wife, and two daughters.7 While Dr. Mukwege and his family survived, his trusted friend and bodyguard, Joseph Bizimana, died protecting the family.8
Though he fled to Belgium, he returned to the DRC not long afterwards, when women of the DRC sold their harvests and raised money to buy Dr. Mukwege and his family plane tickets back. When asked about his return, Dr. Mukwege told the British Broadcasting Network that “[a]fter that gesture, I couldn’t really say no. And also, I am myself determined to help fight these atrocities, this violence. My life has had to change, since returning. I now live at the hospital and I take a number of security precautions, so I have lost some of my freedom.”9 Despite the danger to his own life, Dr. Mukwege continues to transform the lives of many Congolese women in powerful, positive, and lasting ways. He is the light for thousands of women and continues to champion for the protection of women from current and future horrors that are the hallmarks of the conflict in the DRC since the mid 1990s. Proof of his incredible impacts is a woman named Sarah. Her attackers, after slaughtering her village, tied her to a tree where she was brutally raped by different men for days. When she arrived at the hospital, she was in critical condition, unable to even stand on her own. But, as each day passed, her will to live became stronger, and “[t]oday, Sarah is a beautiful, smiling, strong and charming woman…[who] runs her own business…bought a plot of land…has built a little house [and] is independent and proud.”10 For these efforts and all of his contributions, in October of 2018, he was announced as the co-recipient to the Nobel Peace Prize with Nadia Murad “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”11
- Jackson Sinnenberg, “‘Dr. Miracle’ Is The Co-Recipient Of The Nobel Peace Prize,” NPR, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/05/654699946/dr-miracle-is-the-co-recipient-of-the-nobel-peace-prize; “Maternal Mortality,” World Health Organization, February 16, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality. ↵
- Jackson Sinnenberg, “‘Dr. Miracle’ Is The Co-Recipient Of The Nobel Peace Prize,” NPR, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/05/654699946/dr-miracle-is-the-co-recipient-of-the-nobel-peace-prize; Dr. Denis Mukwege, “The Nobel Peace Prize 2018,” NobelPrize.org, Accessed April 07, 2019, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/mukwege/55721-denis-mukwege-nobel-lecture-2/. ↵
- Mewiga Baregu, “Congo in the Great Lakes Conflict,” In Security Dynamics in Africa’s Great Lake Region, edited by Gilbert M. Khadiagala, 59-79. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2006); Dr. Denis Mukwege, “The Nobel Peace Prize 2018,” NobelPrize.org, Accessed April 07, 2019, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/mukwege/55721-denis-mukwege-nobel-lecture-2/. ↵
- “Dr Denis Mukwege,” Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/story/dr-denis-mukwege/. ↵
- “Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Denis Mukwege from DR Congo,” BBC News, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45759304. ↵
- Sinnenberg, Jackson, “‘Dr. Miracle’ Is The Co-Recipient Of The Nobel Peace Prize,” NPR, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/05/654699946/dr-miracle-is-the-co-recipient-of-the-nobel-peace-prize. ↵
- “Dr Denis Mukwege,” Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/story/dr-denis-mukwege/. ↵
- “Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Denis Mukwege from DR Congo,” BBC News, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45759304. ↵
- Sinnenberg, Jackson, “‘Dr. Miracle’ Is The Co-Recipient Of The Nobel Peace Prize,” NPR, October 05, 2018, Accessed December 06, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/05/654699946/dr-miracle-is-the-co-recipient-of-the-nobel-peace-prize. ↵
- Dr. Denis Mukwege, “The Nobel Peace Prize 2018,” NobelPrize.org, Accessed April 07, 2019, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/mukwege/55721-denis-mukwege-nobel-lecture-2/. ↵
- “The Nobel Peace Prize” 2018, NobelPrize.org, Nobel Media AB 2019, (Accessed 7 Apr 2019), <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/summary/>. ↵
56 comments
Ivonne Orozco
When I see an article of sexual violence, it reminds me of how often this keeps happening. I liked this article because often in articles like the one above, we don’t often see a man trying to help several women that are raped. Being able to help people that are raped, must be difficult but it amazes me how much Dr.Mukwege cares about women.
Audrey Uribe
This is the first I’ve heard of a doctor whom specializes in sexually violence and helps women’s health. I find that the article is uplifting and seeks such a great cause for something with such little awareness for. Through the hardships he had, he still managed to be a Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient! Dr. Mukwege’s honor will live on with his practice in helping women.
Sebastian Azcui
I really liked this article! I find it very interesting and something new. It was very descriptive and leads you to keep reading. It is very nice to read about people like Dr. Mukwege. It is impressive how Dr. Denis Mukwege offers hope to women whose attacks destroyed their bodies and now their lives, that seems like a very hard job, and also to empower woman in a third world country like DRC. This problem should be known by more people.
Julia Patrick
Reading articles like this sheds light on current events that need more attention. Before reading this, I had never heard about any of this happening. However, it is nice to see that people are doing something about it instead of just letting it happen. I think it’s important that things like this are brought to the media’s attention because more people can get involved with putting an end to the injustice being committed.
Pablo Medina
The work Dr. Mukwege has done for many women suffering from the war is incredible. The fact that he keeps doing it even after being targeted the way his family and him were shows the type of person he is. His work is very motivational and hopefully causes a push in the government public health administrations to recognize how severe these cases where women get raped and hurt by these group of military men, and start addressing the issues caused by these actions and provide medical attention to these women.
Olivia Tijerina
I find that the article did a magnificent job at exposing to the audience a hospital Dr. Mukwege’s runs in order to seek the empowerment of woman whom , by far too many, were targeted during warfare. Most of all because such a hospital exist it helps lead to lower the tragic incidents and raise for justice to be done. Noble Peace Prize co-recipient is lead in the article for the purpose of identifying/ introducing a phenomenal being despite the setbacks of an opposed community.
Josephine Tran
It is so hard to wrap my head around issues that feel so foreign to the relatively sound communities we are primarily exposed to personally here in the U.S. such as this one. For that I am so grateful, but it makes the situation all the more infuriating. I find Dr. Mukwege amazing for dedicating his life to the women suffering these circumstances. I think the five pillar care of physical medical treatment, psycho-social therapy, socioeconomic support and training, community reintegration and legal assistance is noteworthy. Patients who go through something like that require so much more that just physical repair. I can only hope to one day help a community the way Dr. Mukwege has.
Diamond Estrada
Wow, this article is truly eye-opening! One can only imagine the harsh realities that the people of the DRC have had to deal with, specifically women. Dr. Mukwege and his family have become the true symbol of hope for the people of his country. Because of the help of this doctor, even more people were able to feel comfortable speaking about the issue of war and violence. It’s sad to know that this is the harsh reality people must deal with in other countries, and that women in other areas of the world are still fighting for the right to be respected and treated with actual human dignity.
Wilzave Quiles Guzman
I am personally interested in the African continent and a while ago I watched a documentary about this amazing doctor. The documentary is called “The city of Joy” and is found on Netflix. It is amazing that in the middle of so much darkness and war an amazing man from the same country can stand up to show the world that not everyone is the same. For a country that has been dealing with corruption and violence for so long, people like this Doctor are their hope and allow the pursuit of justice and righteousness for this country to take place. This article makes me proud and amazed about the change that one person can produce when their intentions are good and pure. On the other side, the fact that rape is used as a military weapon breaks my heart and helps me understand the need for people to advocate for human rights.
Hamza Bourouz
Dr. Mukwege without a shadow of a doubt deserved being a corecipient of the Noble Prize, his work has brought relief to thousands of women who suffered horrible atrocities between rape and beating. However, what is more appreciated about him is his willigness to put his life in danger and his total disregard for threats, this is a man who is ready to sacrifice his life for vulnerable women. absolutely heroic.