Today on the Washington Post website I found this video on a woman from Uganda who was captured by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) the rebel group who caused the two decade civil war. During this time 66,000 people were abducted an the women were treated as sex slaves as Catherine, from this video, was. My paper is going to be on sexual violence so I was particularly interested in this video, but overall I believe that it is an example of how sexual violence is a link that brings women together globally. While in the "bush" Catherine became pregnant which is just like the girls in Rigoberta Menchu that suffered war rape. Catherine did not have an abortion though and now she has a daughter and in the video she said that she is should not tell her daughter anything about her father for fear of the reaction. Catherine was in the "bush" for 10 years and when she was released she was aided by World Vision, a humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children and families to tackle the causes of poverty. World Vision helped her learn how to run her own cafe so that she could earn a living, however Catherine says she doesn't feel completely empowered. One of her final quotes was, "My prayer is that God should forgive me." After doing the research for my paper I have found that guilt is a common feeling among those that suffer sexual violence.
As a developed nation what is our role in combating sexual violence? Do we aid in places like Uganda through money or presence or do we just stay out of it? What is the mindset that causes this violence? and how do those minds get changed? (These are some of the questions I've been thinking about as I write my paper).
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2 comments:
Beth,
I agree with your questions. I think we need to make the organizations that are present in the U.S. aware of what is going on. Maybe they would like to take on a global project and spread awareness. Just a thought...
Wow watching this is so sad. I think that it is just horrible for these women to undergo such horrific things and they are the ones that feel guilty. This is a great paper topic and I wish you luck with this. You have great questions that you are considering and I look forward to reading about some thingsyou write about. So sad but something that I think is important to know that it goes on in such an awful way.
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