A guest post from our friends at Women for Women International, an organization that provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s visit to Goma offers promising signs that the epidemic of rape and sexualized violence directed against the women of Eastern Congo will at last become a central issue in the U.S. foreign policy agenda. It represents hope for the hundreds of thousands of women, like Honorata, who have been raped, tortured, and then rejected by their families. We appeal to Secretary Clinton to end this war on Congo’s women.

When Honorata was captured in 2002 (a 48-year old mother of six), her captors referred to her as “a meal.” Everybody who was hungry for sex could take her. After raping her, they would pick up a rag, put it on the end of their rifle, and insert it into her, saying that they were “wiping her clean.” We see so many women like Honorata in our work in Eastern Congo, women who are taken as sex slaves, subjected to barbaric torture and inconceivable violence, and then cast out by their families and communities due to the powerful stigma of rape.

When I met Honorata last fall, she told me about this stigma for rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After over a year of brutal torture, she managed to escape. But her ordeal was not over. Her husband refused to take her back, calling her “a disgrace to the family.” One day rebels attacked the town and she was taken again, along with two pregnant women. They were gang raped. Her front teeth were knocked out during ‘caresses’ they gave her with rifle butts. Her eyesight was impaired due to the severe beatings she endured, and her ring finger became stiff after they sawed off her wedding band.

But there is reason to hope. Secretary Clinton is visiting Goma to hear the stories of women like Honorata, women who are speaking out against rape and calling for justice. And people around the world are calling for action and taking action themselves, sponsoring women like Honorata and supporting them as they rebuild their lives and communities.

I now call Honorata a colleague. She participated in the Women for Women International program as a sponsored sister, receiving economic assistance and training that helped her rebuild her life, send her children to school and even build a house. She also became a staff member of our DRC chapter upon graduation, becoming a Women for Women International trainer in her own right and a community organizer encouraging fellow rape survivors to break the silence and demand justice.

Together we can bring a lasting peace to Congo. You can sponsor a Congolese woman like Honorata through our program. You can run for Congo Women. You can demand that the international community make a stand for Congo’s women. I think we can all hope that Secretary Clinton’s visit to Goma represents a first step in that direction.

-Lyric Thompson, Women for Women International