Why I help women, by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Mukwege
Dr. Denis Mukwege, who was Daily Trust’s inaugural African, has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Yazidi rape victim, Nadia Murad yesterday. The following are excerpts from an interview which the Democratic Republic of Congo national granted Kilimanjaro magazine in 2018.
Daily Trust: How did your project start?
Dr. Denis Mukwege: Initially, my main aim was to help pregnant women who were not able to travel long distances to reach health facilities in urban areas of Bukavu. I thought of having a small health centre near the villages where even caesarian operation could be performed. But majority of those who turned up had injuries in their private parts and as a doctor and a gynecologist for that matter, I could not just seat and watch while they suffered. It was really hurting when I saw girls who could be my daughters, women who were qualified to be my mothers and others to be my sisters walking in with injuries sustained during rape at the hands of armed men. I just had to do something. DT: Do you think there are enough personnel to fight this menace?
Dr. Mukwege: That is the question for Africa. I recently spoke at a conference in the European Union and discussed how many Africans have abandoned their respective countries to work outside their continent. You will find very highly qualified Africans developing other countries.
If you are an African developing a country that is not yours, how do you expect your country of origin to develop? The other thing is that for someone to be accepted to work in these countries, one needs to go an extra mile to prove that he or she is really qualified. In the developed countries, they do not need such professionals more than Africa. If you’ve studied and attained your certificate abroad and work there, who will work in Africa? We must realise that whatever that attracts us in Europe was achieved through a lot of struggle. We can equally achieve the same and have others also admire our countries. DT: One might say that life is miserable and that there is no good pay in Africa? Dr. Mukwege: Sometimes we tend to put money ahead of needs and other basics in life. One important thing to note here is that money cannot solve everything and money itself cannot entirely make one happy. I have also worked in Europe and one can say that I used to earn much more than what I am earning now. But working home has its benefits. If you treat a woman whose life was almost over and she gets healed, what kind of happiness do you thing one feels? You can not equate that with money. When you offer your services to
someone in Europe, he or she thinks it his or her right. We must do the same in Africa because the people here also deserve that right. I must emphasize that the happiness in Africa is very much different from that in Europe. DT: Listening to you, one might confuse you with a politician...
Dr. Mukwege: I am a doctor not a politician. Others look down upon us because of our current situation and this has been made worse by the negative news from the continent. Why don’t we use the knowledge gotten from the west in order to reverse this scenario? When we look down upon ourselves others will do the same. That is not politics. You just need to look around for proofs. As a photographer, you could be more experienced that those in Europe but because we do not appreciate you work or help you to develop, you might also end up migrating elsewhere and we will continue suffering and this has to change. We also seem not to appreciate the resources we have in Africa. Just look at these flowers around us. We have good weather and it did not take much to grow them unlike in Europe. We have rain and good soil and it will be foolish for someone outside Africa to make us realise that we are very rich in resources. DT: What do you have to say about conflicts in the DRC? Dr. Mukwege: Like in many parts of Africa, it’s brother fighting his brother, neighbor fighting his neighbor. If you look deeply, these are mainly proxy wars and we are behaving like crabs in a basket. If one tries to climb up, the rest pull him down. Countries should start behaving like those trying to construct a tower whereby one steps on the other until we reach the peak. We will not get anywhere if we pull down each other. We’ve gone to schools with the rest and I cannot say that we are less intelligent. It’s only that we do not work together. If I blindfold you and take you to another country within the continent without your knowledge and untie you, chances are that you’ll think that you are still in the same place. This shows us we basically face the same challenges and we just need to find a common solution.