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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.

RAPE//

In America, we think of rape as a tragic violation of a woman that results in emotional scars that can take a lifetime to heal. Rape in the DRC is more than a violation of a woman’s body and spirit, it’s a weapon used to destroy a culture. Militia groups use this weapon to terrorize the Congolese people, attacking villages and raping women and girls from age 2 to 80, often while their families are forced to watch. These militias have kidnapped thousands of women and forced them into sexual slavery, which typically results in months of gang rape and sexual torture. As if the trauma of rape wasn’t enough, many women are mutilated so severely that surgery is their only option for survival. In the eastern region of DR Congo, rape has become so brutal and rampant that one hospital in the region of Panzi sees over 2,500 women a year for reconstructive surgery.

In the Congolese culture, it’s common for victims of rape to be divorced from their husbands, disowned from their families or shunned from their villages, as rape has made them “unclean.” As a result, these women have no way of supporting themselves or their children and have no other choice but to live in the streets, begging for food and money.

Although their stories are tragic and seem hopeless, there is a way you can help – click here.

GET INVOVLED//

The first thing to do is head over to http://congocast.org/episodes.php and catch up on all 13 episodes. Each episode is cut and edited by either staff or volunteers at Port City Community Church (church I am graced to be on staff at) and is indeed at a professional level. Once you catch up on the episodes (and Episode 13 is specifically about the personal stories of three rape victims) head over to the Get Involved page (http://congocast.org/getinvolved.php) to either… 

1) Pray 
2) Share (like I am doing now) 
3) Donate: The Julie Project

So please watch Episode 13 to get a taste…

 
Congocast.org Episode 13 from Congocast.org on Vimeo.

website: http://congocast.org/
blog: http://congocast.org/blog 

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Today’s post is part of the 40 Day Fast, a collection of 80 bloggers joining together to shed light on needs around the world and the people who are making a difference. Joining me today is Elizabeth Seay

 

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It was an honor to share this information about the women and children of the DRC with you and I pray that you will pass the info along to your friends via word of mouth and the Web 2.0. Also most of the info above was taken from the CongoCast.org website and was written by the Director the podcast, Evan Vetter.

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