As you read this message, JWW Board Members Diana Buckhantz, Diane Kabat and I are en route to Congo. We travel to meet our JWW partners in Africa and to lend moral support to those who are served by our various JWW programs in the North and South Kivu provinces of eastern Congo. We will dedicate our Chambucha Rape and Crisis Center, which we built with International Medical Corps. The Center brings rape recovery and maternity/reproductive health care to more than 29,000 rural women in a woefully under-served area of Congo that has been afflicted with tremendous violence. We will visit our project that helps liberated child soldiers recover from their horrific traumas. We will also visit our programs that offer economic, social and medical recovery.
We are proud to represent our JWW supporters and constituency as we bear witness to the impacts of war, conflict and gender-based violence in Congo. We look forward to our time with our project leaders and participants, as on our other trips to the area, we have been inspired by the resilience of the Congolese women and children with whom we’ve met and their profound capacity for building new dreams, new communities and new life. We hope to bring support and comfort to those we serve, and learn from their experiences — in Congo and with our projects.
We will be writing during our stay in Congo- please make sure to like us on Facebook or check the JWW blog for updates to follow our travels. You will also see blog posts from us on the Huffington Post and Ms. Magazine sites – stay tuned! And please consider a gift to JWW in support of our Congo programs. Every day, we help thousands to create a new culture of hope in Congo.
We will be in touch soon. But for now, our seat belts are fastened and our devices must be powered down.
Janice Kamenir-Reznik, President and Co-Founder
Jewish World Watch