Murderer, Rapist, Child Abuser and Sex Slave Owner Boscoe Ntanganda has surrendered to the US Embassy in Kigail today. After years of inflicting unspeakable atrocities, Ntaganda faces charges of conscripting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution, sexual slavery, and … Continue reading
Women of Congo
I’ve been following the horrific conditions that women in Congo are facing for years now. Violence in Congo is at a record high; violence against women-higher. The Congo has been named the worst place for women to live. Congolese women are 100 times more likely to be raped than a woman in the US. (pretty scary, if you think how often women in this country are raped every year)
Even though the media has opened up recognition of the in humane conditions there, the conditions are getting worse, not better.
Hopefully, that can begin to change with help from each of us.
If we want things to GET better, then we have to DO better! We can’t just sit back and say, “oh, what a terrible thing” and expect it to go away. Or think that those horrible things can’t happen to us; because they can. As I said yesterday, Damini is all of us.
You all know that this is the year that The Butterfly Bridge has pledged to bring “FLY” back. We are taking a slang term from the 90’s that was used synonymous with “cute, cool, awesome, good, etc” and bringing it to another level. Fly is an action word. We can be cool, and cute, and awesome-but we also have to be active!
There are times, like these, when a call comes out from our sisters around the world and we need to take action-Time 2 FLY!
Neema Namadamu and the Maman Shujaa (‘Hero Women’) of the Democratic Republic of Congo have started a petition on Change.Org asking women all over the world to stand with them to stop the violence.
“On November 20, 2012, M23 rebels seized Goma, a major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reigniting a war that has ravaged the region for 16 years. Neema Namadamu and a group of grassroots women leaders who call themselves the Maman Shujaa (‘Hero Women’ in Swahili) are calling on you and US woman leaders Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and Michelle Obama to take immediate action in solidarity with the women of the Congo.”
The petition is addressed to Secretary of the United States, Hillary Clinton (and her office). The request-create a Special Envoy to Congo.
Join me in standing with Neema and the Maman Shujaa and all of the women of Congo, by signing her petition. You can find it here: From Grassroots Women Leaders of Congo to Women Leaders of the White House
Please share this post and spread the word! The petition needs 25, 000 signatures to get before Sec. Clinton and it is 8,000 away.
Heck, Butterflies alone have enough power to make 8,000 signatures happen!
Let’s FLY!
The Butterfly Bridge 