{"id":35980,"date":"2024-10-03T13:27:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T13:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adra.org\/?p=35980"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:12:03","slug":"adra-brings-hope-to-girls-in-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/adra-brings-hope-to-girls-in-congo","title":{"rendered":"ADRA bringt Hoffnung f\u00fcr M\u00e4dchen im Kongo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Generative AI Representative Illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By James Standish<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s called \u201csurvival sex\u201d and that we have a term for it lets you know just how common it is. Survival sex occurs when hungry women and girls are forced to exchange sex for the food they need to survive.[1]<\/sup><\/a> Survival sex is only one of forms of sexual exploitation and violence that thrives in the chaos that has enveloped the Democratic Republic of Congo (also known as DRC or Congo).[2]<\/sup><\/a>  In 2010, Margot Wallstr\u00f6m, the UN Secretary-General\u2019s then Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict called Congo the \u201cRape Capital of the World,\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> and it\u2019s a title that has stuck. In the interim, the UN reports cases of sexual exploitation have only increased.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How did Congo become a \u201crape capital\u201d?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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If you had to name the war that took the most lives since World War II, which conflict would you name? Korea? Vietnam? Former Yugoslavia? Russia-Ukraine? Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Libya combined? Not even close. The Second Congo War \u2013 sometimes called the African World War \u2013 was by far the costliest conflict in human lives since WWII. The most widely reviewed estimate is that in the range of 5.4 million<\/em> people died directly or indirectly in the conflict that raged from the late 90s into the 2000s. Congo is a massive nation \u2013 about as large as the entirety of western Europe \u2013 and the Second Congo War involved a number African nations that sent troops or support to the many armed groups. And the fighting hasn\u2019t ended as neighbor nations continue to wage proxy wars and foreign interests work to safeguard their access to Congo\u2019s precious resources<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

[display-map id=’35982′]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are the DRC and Congo in Africa?<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

All of this may seem like a long way from us, but chances are you carry a little bit of Congo with you every day.  Congo produces close to 70% of the world\u2019s cobalt and cobalt is used in the batteries that power our phones. Everybody wants the cobalt and the money that comes with it, but as they scramble to get their hands on it, the ongoing conflict has produced a culture where child exploitation and sexual violence is widespread and in the chaos of conflict goes completely unpunished. The stories of sexual violence from Congo are so shocking that they are too gruesome for mass publication. But they are real, and the women and girls of Congo desperately need our help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But how can we stop this ongoing catastrophe? 
A new study gives an idea.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This June researchers surveyed a broad range of organizations serving women and girls in Congo. [5]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>  Of those interviewed, 96% reported the lack of secure access to food drives the increase in rapes and sexual exploitation. This may be counterintuitive until you unpack the relationship between food and sexual violence and exploitation. Secure access to food ensures women and girls aren\u2019t coerced into survival sex. It also means they don\u2019t have to travel far and wide in search of food where they are vulnerable to roaming bands of armed men. It means they have the most basic necessity of life to provide dignity, strength and hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADRA is increasing the number of people we\u2019re serving in Congo. And we\u2019re not just feeding people; we\u2019re teaching people how to grow crops that thrive even in difficult conditions, we\u2019re building better food storage facilities so food doesn\u2019t spoil before it can be distributed to hungry people, and we\u2019re ensuring food can move efficiently from production to market to increase availability and lower costs. The big idea? No one \u2013 not one single girl or woman, boy or man \u2013should be hungry. A very happy byproduct of assuring women and girls have access to food? The chances a woman or girl is attacked or exploited is reduced \u2013 and that means more women and girls living lives free from the painful physical and emotional scars left from sexual violence and exploitation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At ADRA we see a child of God in everyone we serve, and we believe it is every Christian\u2019s responsibility to do all we can to help God\u2019s children thrive \u2013 whether they live here at home, or in Congo. Access to food is at the heart of protecting Congolese women and girls from unspeakable crimes. That is why, despite the immense dangers our ADRA team face, we\u2019re committed to expanding access to food to vulnerable people in Congo. But we can\u2019t do it alone. Won\u2019t you join us? Every life sustaining meal we deliver brings protection, hope and dignity to the suffering women and girls of Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cSurvival sex\u201d can include the exchange of sex for any necessity, and men and boys can also be coerced into exchanging sex for life\u2019s necessities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a> There are two Congos \u2013 the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo. The two Congos share a border, with the Democratic Republic of Congo being far larger and having a population of 109 million people compared to the Republic of Congo\u2019s population of 6 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2010\/04\/336662<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/us\/news\/briefing-notes\/unhcr-warns-mounting-violence-against-women-and-girls-eastern-drc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> InterAction, an alliance of humanitarian NGOs based in Washington, DC, developed a survey in June 2024 for gender based violence experts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 150 specialists representing women-led and women\u2019s rights organizations, international non-governmental organizations, local organizations, and UN agencies operating in DRC responded to the survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Das nennt man \u201cSurvival Sex\u201d, und die Tatsache, dass wir einen Begriff daf\u00fcr haben, zeigt, wie verbreitet er ist.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[785,615,807],"tags":[996,1079,1086,754,383],"class_list":["post-35980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-blog","category-dr-congo","tag-advocacy","tag-crisis","tag-pseah-protection-from-sexual-exploitation-abuse-and-harassment","tag-safeguarding","tag-united-nations-un"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35980"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45525,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35980\/revisions\/45525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}