Doctor’s own war for DRC’s women

Feminist Gloria Steinem names her 2015 hero as a doctor in the DRC passionate about restoring the dignity of vulnerable women. Liz Clarke reports

THEY call him the gentle giant – a medical doctor extraordinaire who has put his life on the line to alleviate and highlight the suffering of women in conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Women’s rights activist and author of a new book, Gloria Steinem, has told CNN that in her view Denis Mukwege, founder and medical director of Panzi Hospital in the sprawling coastal eastern DRC city of Bakavu, is a “beacon of hope” whose fight to protect vulnerable women and children should be lauded in every corner of the globe.

“He is the Nelson Mandela of medicine,” the 81-year-old veteran campaigner told presenter Christiane Amanpour “doing so much under very difficult circumstances”.

The recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, gynaecology surgeon Mukwege, is known to be a shy, retiring family man, who prefers to stay out of the limelight and do his job to the best of his ability.

Said one of his medical colleagues: “He will only speak out publicly if he feels his message will reach those who need to hear it. Then he is fearless. Otherwise you will find him with his patients, comforting, consoling and performing surgery on those whose lives can be saved. It is a full time task, with little time for rest.”

As a young child Mukwege accompanied his father, a Pentecostal pastor, visiting the sick. It was this experience that inspired him to become a doctor and with the support of the Swedish Pentecostal mission he was able to complete his medical studies.

His decision to specialise in gynaecology and obstetrics stemmed, he said, from the realisation that female patients who had had insufficient medical care during pregnancy, developed complications during delivery.

One of his rare public addresses was to the UN, where he outlined the situation in the DRC describing “the war on women” as a modern horror story, with more than 500 000 women having been raped, mostly by soldiers fighting in the conflict zones.

“It is a method of torture,” he said. “It is a way to terrorise the population. When I see some of the injuries on the women and children, I realise this type of violence has little to do with sex and much more with power through terrorism.”

In his measured native French he explained that the violations took place often in public places in front of children and other onlookers.

“It is terrible, undermining. It is a war that is taking place on women’s bodies, where all dignity is destroyed. We have to stop this cycle of violence.

“I have treated women who have been raped and delivered the children of these acts. Twenty years on I am now treating the children of these women, who are being subjected to the same violations.”

Mukwege’s fearless efforts to increase protection for women and advocate that those responsible for sexual violence be brought to justice, including the Congolese government and militia groups laying siege to eastern DRC, did not resonate well in some quarters,

The DRC leadership elite saw this maverick doctor’s address on the world stage as meddling in the affairs of the state, undermining the government – in much the same way, Steinem pointed out to CNN, as the apartheid regime viewed Nelson Mandela.

In fact Mukwege’s compassion nearly cost him his life.

In October 2012, he was violently attacked at his home in Bakavu, his family was held at gunpoint and a trusted security guard was killed.

The attack came several weeks after he had condemned the country’s 16-year conflict and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

He and his family were forced to flee the country for safety – but the passion and love for his hospital remained.

Urged by his Congolese patients and colleagues to resume his life-saving work, and despite the threats against him, he returned to his Panzi Hospital in 2013.

“It was like our hero coming back,” one witness reported at the time.

“There were hundreds of us lining the street, celebrating this great man. We were ecstatic to have him home.”

Mukwege founded the hospital in 1999 as a clinic for gynaecological and obstetric care, focusing on issues of maternal health.

Since then he and his staff have cared for more than 30 000 survivors of sexual violence. The hospital not only treats survivors with physical wounds, but also provides legal and psychosocial services to patients, including those who cannot afford post-rape medical care.

With Mukwege’s return to the battle zones has come a growing resolve among women of this wartorn enclave that they have to stand up for their rights and speak out.

“There is hope for the future,” Mukwege said in a recent interview. “The taboos, when women were too embarrassed or frightened to report these brutalities, are fading slowly. This is a good thing. It will be the only way we can stop this terrible scourge – women saying enough is enough.”

Steinem’s new book, My Life on the Road, is available in South Africa.

lizclarke4@gmail.com