Valerie* is 16, the mother of a 4-month-old baby, and a victim of rape. When she was just 14 years old, soldiers patrolling the road into town took her by force and sexually assaulted her. Afraid of the stigma attached to rape, she kept it a secret.<\/p>\n
In Valerie\u2019s hometown of Bweremana in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), gender-based violence is often regarded as a nuisance instead of a serious and life-altering crime. When Valerie finally returned home, she was too ashamed to tell anyone what had happened, but it soon became obvious that she was pregnant.<\/p>\n
People in her town began to mock her, jeering, \u201cWhere is the father?\u201d The teasing became so bad that she refused to leave the house.<\/p>\n
It is because of girls like Valerie that ADRA operates Ongea, a project named for the literal meaning of the Swahili word ongea: \u201cspeak up.\u201d Ongea encourages women to speak up against rape and sexual assault and against the people who perpetrate and condone it. In addition to supporting victims of gender-based violence, Ongea strives to combat the prevailing cultural attitude that enables it.<\/p>\n
By creating listening committees comprised of community members, and counseling groups of influential local leaders, ADRA has developed a system to value women and devalue crimes against them. Ongea also spreads awareness through radio broadcasts and cultural activities.<\/p>\n
This project has galvanized the women of Bweremana, many of whom feel empowered for the first time in their lives. \u201cI want to combat gender-based violence,\u201d said local listening group member Vomili Ngengeisi. \u201cI want to help girls like Valerie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though still suffering from the trauma of her experience, Valerie has hope that Ongea will continue to speak up against gender-based violence in her community. Of her own future, she is modest: \u201cI dream about finding a husband who will love me.\u201d<\/p>\n
*Name has been changed to protect her identity.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Valerie* is 16, the mother of a 4-month-old baby, and a victim of rape. When she was just 14 years old, soldiers patrolling the road into town took her by force and sexually assaulted her. Afraid of the stigma attached to rape, she kept it a secret. In Valerie\u2019s hometown of Bweremana in the eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[615,594],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28425,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/28425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adra.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}