Source: Standard Digital
Yes, the campaign against gender-based violence has been intense. But it is depressing that in this day and age violence is still a daily routine for thousands of women. NJOKI CHEGE delves deeper into the thorny debate.

"...They attacked us in the dead of the night, captured us and took us to the forest, where they raped and tortured us for days on end. We begged them to kill us instead of torturing us like this, but they continued to rape us..."

This is an excerpt of Jeanne Mukuninwa's heart-wrenching story that moved the crowd to tears. Jeanne, a Congolese national, is now a women's rights activist and a multiple-rape survivor who recounted her story during the V-Day Africa Summit held in Nairobi last week.

Her moving story is dramatic, yet real, and could easily fit for a movie script. She tearfully recounted how as a child, she and other citizens suffered in the hands of Hutu militia during the Congo wars.

Jeanne, whose parents disappeared as soon as the wars began, lived with her uncle until the Hutu militia captured them. The Hutu militia was known to take hostage innocent citizens and turn young girls like Jeanne into sex slaves.

Shame and ridicule

"They tied us spread-eagle and gang raped us until our feet and hands were numb and swollen," Jeanne continued. After soldiers rescued them, Jeanne and other girls were taken back to their village. But home was no longer sweet, as she had to contend with the stigma that comes with rape.

"Neighbours would point fingers at me and say, 'Look at that girl, who has slept with more than one man," she says.

Jeanne fell pregnant as a result of the rape, and she decided to keep the baby. When she was seven months pregnant, she was raped again causing her to have serious complications with her pregnancy.

That was when she was taken to Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, DRC where under the care of leading fistula expert Dr Dennis Mukwege. Luckily she recuperated and lived to tell her story.

But Jeanne is among the few lucky girls. She is able to recollect her story, and be joyful enough to give hope to other young girls of City of Joy a Congo-based organisation that empowers girls.

Eve Ensler and award winning playwright and author of The Vagina Monologues says Jeanne's story is not an isolated case, but an everyday occurrence in the lives of millions of women across the globe.

"I wish her story was special, that nobody ever went through what Jeanne went through, but I am sorry to say that she reflects what thousands of women go through," says Ensler.

It is against the backdrop of awakening global statistics such tugging real life testimonies, that the V-Day Africa Summit was held to find ways and means to end violence against women, globally.

The V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls and create awareness through benefit productions of Eve Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues.

Mumbi Kaigwa, a Kenyan author, playwright and actress says women today still live in patriarchal societies that cause them to fall victim of various forms of violence and abuse.

"This movement speaks about the vagina, because we want to say where the violence is happening — at the vagina," she says.

This year's event featured innovative approaches in the fight against gender violence, and took a keen interest in campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Agnes Pareyio, the V-Day Kenya director and ardent anti-FGM activist notes that the end of gender violence has to start with changing the mindsets of women, who have come to accept violence as part of their lives.

"We need to wake women up, especially in the grassroots level, and remove it from their minds because this violence — particularly FGM — has been so deeply embedded in our cultures," she says.

Pareyio runs the Sakutiek Rescue Centre, a safe house for girls escaping FGM and early marriage. The rescue centre has introduced an alternative rite of passage for the girls, where they meet the girls for a week to teach them about adulthood.

The summit attracted delegates from various African countries who shared their experiences in the fight to end gender violence.

Dr Isatou Touray, a Gambian women's rights activist and executive director says women need to be empowered using knowledge to influence their decisions.

"Our women perish because of lack of knowledge. If you give them knowledge, you empower them. Knowledge is the answer to all these problems because women have been brainwashed using lies for a long time," she says.

Fartuun Aadan, a Somali/Canadian refugee who fled Mogadishu for Canada at the height of civil conflict in Somali, attributed the worrying statistics to lack of education among women.

Says she: "Violence against women happens as a result of lack of education and this is why there is need to raise awareness among women. This fight will take long, but it is worthwhile." 

• Kenya