Update: Watch Sienna’s short film about her trip to the Congo here.

It has been a whirlwind three days and so much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin. Twenty four hours of the last seventy two have been spent in a car so we’re all feeling weary. I’m not sure if I even have the energy to attempt eloquence but I’ll give it a shot.

We left Bukavu for Chambucha on Wednesday morning at six. The journey was everything we had been warned about and more: muddy roads that could swallow a truck, flat tires, makeshift bridges, military checkpoints, very young men with very large weapons. It was a six-hour drive through Kahuzi Biega National Park and north to Chambucha. The scenery was breathtaking. Thick dense jungle, bamboo trees and wild orchids, monkeys, every shade of green you could possibly imagine. Enormous spider webs and their equally enormous creators, such a change from the urban feel of Bukavu. There were children swimming in the river that borders the forest where the FDLR (Rwandan rebel group) are in hiding, and where the FARDC (Congolese government troops) have taken positions along the road, weapons trained at their sides. And that’s what’s so confusing about this place..utter purity and beauty juxtaposed with brutal violence.

So we headed to an area engulfed by guerrilla activity. As a result tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in neighboring villages and have been essentially herded into Chambucha. The road we are on ends there, and we are received like heroes. The people had been told beforehand of our arrival and hundreds turned up to clap and cheer and sing us into our camp. It was so moving and there is no way I can do it justice in words…David Serota has it all on film, so it will no doubt eventually speak for itself.

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I’m sitting in the dark, due to a huge rainstorm as I write this, from the balcony of the International Medical Corps guesthouse in Bukavu, eastern DRC.  We left Goma at the crack of dawn and sandwiched ourselves onto a boat that was full way beyond capacity.  And we laughed the whole way because despite the immense darkness that exists here, this country is beautiful in so many ways.  Bukavu feels far more like a city and is certainly more developed than Goma, but it is equal in beauty and in charm.  We visited Panzi Hospital where IMC is training doctors and which has become world-renowned because of its incredible work with thousands of women who are in need of surgical repair for a condition called “fistula,” a severe gynecologic rupture. It’s a frighteningly common condition in eastern DRC because of lack of obstetric care, and the epidemic of rape.

Panzi Hospital’s Founder and Director is Dr. Denis Mukwege, often referred to as “the savior of women “ and was named by a prestigious Nigerian newspaper as African of the Year in 2008.  But this man is beyond labels.  He shared some of his experiences with us and as you can imagine, they are horrific.  The youngest rape victim he has had to treat was a three year old girl.
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I guess it’s important to clarify why I’m here. International Medical Corps is an incredible organization that is providing healthcare and support to people in dire need. I met with them in Los Angeles two months ago and they approached me to see if and how I could help in anyway. They desperately need funding and general awareness raised both for the organization, and for all the projects they are involved with. If my involvement in any way could contribute to either then I was more than happy to be involved. My one request was that if we were going to start working together, it was imperative, that I see and experience what is going on first hand….So here I am.

Today we went into the camps. It’s incredibly difficult to put down in writing what I saw and how I subsequently feel. I met so many courageous people: victims of brutal rape, mothers of children dying of starvation, and the children themselves. If a woman is married and raped here, most of the time her husband will leave her immediately. If she was too young to be married when raped, she will probably never have the chance to be married at all. It is brutal in every sense of the word. One woman recounted her story to me. She is twenty five years old, and was gang-raped five months ago. It is difficult to hear, but important to know that when women are raped it is sometimes not only by men, but by objects ranging from broken bottles and knives, to the butts of very large rifles. As a result of her experience, this woman will wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life. I saw the scars, and the bag, and I can honestly say that it is one of the most harrowing images I will ever come across. A woman is raped here every eight minutes. This one, for better or worse, survived.

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Update: Watch Sienna’s short film about her trip to the Congo here.

We boarded the flight to Rwanda having spent a night in a gorgeous old colonial hotel in Nairobi. Felt such anticipation as we flew over Lake Victoria and watched the landscape beneath us with its deep reds transforming into luscious green and mountainous peaks. Rwanda is so full of history and so far from home. A country that has been ravaged by war and yet once landing we were met by a sea of smiling faces and stunning landscape. The only reminder of genocide on our four-hour drive to the border of Congo was the banners stretching across the road as a memorial to those who were so brutally murdered.

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