Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights awareness activities among IDPs in Maluku-Kinshasa

Sexual and Reproductive Heath Rights among Internally Displaced Persons in Maluku-Kinshasa

Background information

The Democratic Republic of Congo hosts more than 6Millions Internally Displaced Persons according to the United Nations and it is ranked 5^th globally. However we believe this number in not accurate because we have thousands of IDPs in many other places where the UN do not reach. We estimate IDPs at around 10millions in DRC. Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights is missing among interventions for those who are granted humanitarian relief aid yet sexual activity is the first one among all other activities in camps.

Our package to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maluku –Kinshasa included also information about family planning methods, the fight against HIV-AIDs and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. In total 103 people benefited among them 73 Female and 30 Male.

This was made possible through the collaboration on medical practitioners from our partner AFI Sante and focused on sexual rights, the traditional methods to avoid pregnancy and the use of a Condom. Our audience which included women, men, young girls and young boys were particularly attached to these topics which they had for their first time for some. In the process Condoms were also distributed to the participants as they said that survival sex is one among the leading activity in that site and this could lead to sexual exploitation, a theme we shall develop more in our next visit.

While people are not so much informed about HIV-AIDs in many parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, our audience had endless questions and wrong information about HIV. Unfortunately because of the time, we were not able to exhaustively address all the concerns. We promised to come back and continue. However the audience was encouraged to use the Condom but again the question is that people will not get the Condom always especially when the stock we distributed is over.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights is one among activities which too much needed among the growing number of Internally displaced Persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sexual violence

Women and especially young girls are the most victims of sexual violence which include harassment, threats and intimidations and the use of force. On top of that some are already victims of rape either as they militia groups attacked their villages or as the moved on the way running towards Maluku. Some became pregnant and others do not know about their status and are wondering if they were infected by the HIV.

Through this activity we realized that information about rape and Gender Based Violence in the country is not accurate as it is focused mainly on the situation of war and violence in the Eastern part, and not much is documented in other parts of the country where militia and armed groups are also operating.

This is why we come to you once again to support our activities and contribute generally to our projects so that we can offer services to the victims and journey with them to restore their lives. We are dealing on difficult situations especially for the victims who are totally ignored and abandoned, our intention is to ensure that all the war victims in DRC are recognized.