“We are surviving, but we don’t live.”
The title sentence above, spoken by a Sudanese woman, opens our eyes to the horror being endured by so many women in Sudan. Actually, it (surviving) might not be fully accurate because, reports are that, after being raped, often in front of their family, or the fear of being raped has led over 100 women there to take their own lives.
On July 29th Pax Christi held a webinar on The War on Women in Sudan. If you’d like to see the 86-minute webinar on YouTube, click: http, s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwq8XrA2voQ.
Susan Nagele, a medical doctor, who spent 30 years of her life as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner working in East Africa, 12 of those years were in Sudan, listened in on the webinar and took notes. A small selection of her notes follows.
The Sudanese are extremely generous and will share their last plate of food with you.
Current weapons of this war include the abuse of women.
Women have been raped in front of their families and after witnessing this some men have committed suicide.
Raping women is a means to destroy all of society. A 17-year-old woman who had lost both her parents in Khartoum was found living alone and gang raped for four days by soldiers. She became pregnant and wanted to join a group fleeing to another place. When they found out she was pregnant they left her behind.
Medical clinics refuse to treat women who have been raped.
130 young women chose to commit group suicide to avoid being raped which would bring dishonor to their families.
People have been tortured by locking them in container like boxes until they die
Weapons of war include starvation, torture, looting and destruction of schools, clinics, universities and other civic institutions.
12 million people have been displaced
At least 180,000 to 200,000 people have died
30 million people need food aid and 50% of these are children.
There is little publicity because all those people working for human rights have been targeted and killed.
I (Bob) was very moved by a Sudanese woman on the webinar who had escaped to Uganda. She pleaded, “Please SEE these woman.” It is so hard not to know how to help. Even Susan, who spent half her life as a medical doctor in Africa, said that she felt “so impotent”. Pax Christi does offer (invite) us to endorse their statement by http://filling in this form
[If you like to see Susan’s full blog, go to: https://healthministryinkenya.blogspot.com/]