Testimony from a young teen who was raped by two soldiers. She told us that she saw the two men the last few times she went to the weekly market. She has to walk past them every time she goes into town. Although she can identify them and we know the military unit they are from, there is no recourse of action for her. She does not have a father or a brother, “I have no one to speak for me. So that is how it is”.

We arrived at a stunningly picturesque little village. It was situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking miles of bananas, a tree-studded valley, and another mountain range in the distance. This was our outdoor classroom for the day. A full sized black board materialized out of nowhere and the local community assembled around us, men, women, children, and babies. Today was going to be the COPERMA elections where they would select a president, vice-president, secretary, and discipline committee. The committee will work to help run the COPERMA programs for the child soldiers attempting to reintegrate to normal life, the girl mothers, and the micro enterprises. The elections are significant because COPERMA’s intent is to empower people by helping them organize to find their own solutions for their community instead of waiting for the corrupt and defunct government to change its ways.

Most of the people here are farmers and work large plots of land to feed their family and sell at the market. Today we arrived at a COPERMA member’s field to find that someone has stolen part of the potato harvest. They have taken the food and potential income from the community. Hours from Butembo, the team scrambles to get the rest of the harvest out of the ground before nightfall.

Goretti is a 21 year-old “girl mother”. Five years ago, she woke up in the hospital after being brutally raped by 10 soldiers. Sixteen years-old, she was alone and afraid. Nine months later, she returned to the hospital to give birth to her daughter -Waridi. In the DRC the name used to describe girls like Goretti is "Girl Mother." She dreams of being married, but because of the stigma of rape it will be difficult for her to find someone who is willing to marry her. There is an entire generation of brave and vulnerable girls forced into motherhood by rape. She and thousands of others are lovingly raising a generation of fatherless children.

Looking out the door of our mud hut “interview room”. We went to this village expecting to meet with 10 women and their children. By the time we arrived, there were at least double that number waiting. As we spent the afternoon interviewing, the line at the door kept growing. These women have no access to resources to care for themselves and their children. They have no recourse for justice. It is very important to all of them that we listen to their story, write it down, and document it for the outside world to see. In fact they demand this and wait in line for hours for their turn. We struggle to meet with everyone before nightfall because this area becomes the soldier’s playground after dark.

One of more than 6,000 working prostitutes in Butembo - a city of 800,000. This women has been working as a prostitute for several years. Her husband died in the war. Without a husband, no education, and mouths to feed, working as a prostitute is her only option to make money.

Many of the girls and women we spoke with were attacked while completing essential daily activities like walking to and from their field or on the way to get water. Girls and women walking alone are especially vulnerable to the attacks of soldiers and unscrupulous civilians.

A visit to FEPSI, the only free post-rape care and HIV clinic for hundreds of miles. Some people walk for a few days to get here and then are turned away from the overflowing hospital. FEPSI is funded by an Spanish NGO and offers everything from HIV testing to mental health services. It is the only hospital of its kind in the area and has a continual stream of new clients.

More shocking than any village we have visited, the soldiers have been here five times and taken everything. They took the crops, the firewood, the women, the clothes, and the dignity. As we wait in the most private mud and stick hut we can find, the interviewees come in one after another. It seems each time another walks in the door they are younger and younger. Some are able to smile and look at us. Some are completely shattered. Some are so angry, embarrassed, or vacant from the experience that they physically turn away from us and look at the wall during the interview. One girl knows the name of the soldier. He kidnapped her and brought her back to his camp and made her his “wife”, in his mind this forced marriage is a lesser evil than rape. Two soldiers took turns on her for a week. Another girl in the group was not taken as a wife and was raped by 10 soldiers for the week. After about eight days, the girls were sent to the market to buy food, but they ran away instead. The soldier that took her, his name is “Justin”.

Doctors examination at FEPSI. This is Goretti’s third visit to the hospital after she was raped by 10 soldiers. She would like to get married, but she still suffers severe depression and physical pain in her womb from the rape. She spends a lot of time in bed, deeply saddened by the state of her life. She is still afraid to return to her field and remains deeply traumatized from the attack. She has received no mental health services in the past five years.

Artisanal diamond mine. This community lives and works surrounded by more than 20 different armies that work as mafias fighting to control mines. The general population is in a battle over land rights and citizenship. With little transparency in the mining and banking industries, there is no way for the Congolese people to hold their government accountable for the business deals it is making. While this elite network of Congolese businessmen and politicians are reaping the benefits, those in the lowest echelons of society are paying the price. Foreign mining companies, mercenaries, foreign banks -who operate in a manner they would never be allowed to on their own countries’ soil -and the elite Congolese are raping the country of its mineral wealth.

Kavugho Vawhere -15 years old This young teen was terrified that she was pregnant. Her friends told her that anytime you are with a man you get pregnant. She refused to let us take her to the hospital for care because she was worried the kids at school would find out what had happened to her. We let her know they could do a test to see if she was pregnant, but the fear of others finding out what had happened and the stigma that would result was too great.

Mama Jacqueline - 63 years old She told us about growing up in her village and the problem of rape. The stigma used to be worse and women would be forced to live in the bush. Now rape is more prevalent, and in her village women are not forced to leave. She explained that where they live, you don't talk about rape because people will "sing it throughout the village" and it will be very bad. Some husbands abandon their families and young girls are considered undesirable for marriage.

There are thousands of “fatherless” children in the DRC. Children who will never meet their fathers because their father was their mothers rapist. Since many young girls do not have the money to attend school or have to drop out when they become pregnant, they have to raise their children alone with little to no education. They are considered undesirable for marriage and without a man to serve as the liaison for society women have no place, few rights, and little future. They are called “women who live alone” and are vulnerable to further attacks because they are considered prostitutes in Congolese society.

A young girl and her mother standing in the family’s corn field. If this young girl is unable to find a way to attend school, she will likely work in the field. According to the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) over 65% of victims are adolescent girls and roughly 10% of child victims are under 10 years old.

We walked this path after a day of incredibly difficult interviews. It had taken COPERMA two weeks to come up with the gas money to reach this remote village about 3.5 hours away from Butembo. In the end, one of the staff members had to borrow gas money from friends. We came here because there were over 14 girls who had been raped. We could not even make it through all the interviews on this day. As the girls came in they kept getting younger and younger. 15, 14, 13.

Masika Anwaritta - 16 There was fighting in her village so she hid in her house. “There were three girls in the room, they were my sisters. One older sister and her younger. 19 and 13 years old”. Two days after the rape she was raped again by 3 soldiers. She has seen the soldiers who raped her in the adjacent town. We asked her if there is anything that would help her protect herself. She said, “Yes a sewing machine”. Surprised by her answer, it took us a few minutes to understand. She is an apprentice sewer and if she has a sewing machine she can sew clothing for a living instead of working in the filed where many women are attacked.

The women meet at the bare bones headquarters of the Prostitute’s Association. A local bar owner (whose mother was a prostitute) saw a need to help these women so he works as the male representative for all 6,000. A union of sorts, the women have power together and live in large communities disenfranchised from mainstream society with their children. Most cannot believe they have ended up in this line of work, but it is a means to an end. It’s a way to pay for an education and a way to feed their children. Several of them have five or more children and have been abandoned by their husbands. Their visions for the future are striking similar to one you would hear anywhere in the world. They want a good life for themselves, an opportunity for their children to study, and peace in their country.

COPERMA’s office is located in Butembo, a bustling town of over 800,000 and the center of the diamond and Coltan trade in this region. Butembo is reminiscent of a frontier town from the “Wild West”. There is a dusty, pothole-laden, red-dirt road lined with shops through the center of the town. Millions of dollars in minerals and diamonds leave this region each year, but those most impacted by the ongoing conflict see almost nothing.

Trying to get to the bottom of why the situation only continues to worsen one interviewee explained, "...women have no way to protect themselves. If you are going to the water source to get water and you see men, they can do whatever they want to you”. Rape was originally used as a tool of war. With no functioning security sector or justice system, civilians and soldiers are attacking women, girls, and men because they know they can get away with it.

Kavira - 14 years-old She told us, “If I find the people who raped me I will say to them that they should be in prison or even killed”. This is a bold statement for a lone 14 year-old who had to flee her family and village across the valley and ended up at a COPERMA center. She was staying with a foster family set up by COPERMA and is hoping to get into a sewing apprenticeship at the training center. With no options for recourse the girls are resolved to move on and begin a new chapter in their life. They laugh, work, and live together building their vision for the future.