City of Joy Gives Congolese Women a New Life after War and Violence A ray of hope in a war torn country provides relief and a sense of community to victims of sexual violence

Written by Rebecca DeRosa

After experiencing the worst pain imaginable—excruciating sexual assault and the loss of their families and homes—Congolese women have a chance to heal at the City of Joy.

This aptly named center and home for women in central Africa opened in 2011 and was founded by activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver, playwright Eve Ensler, and Dr. Denis Mukwege, who joined director Madeleine Gavin and City of Joy graduate and staff member Jane Mukuninwa on stage for an emotional and inspiring Q&A moderated by actress Thandie Newton following the world premier screening of City of Joy at DOC NYC on Friday.

When war broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1996, Dr. Mukwege’s hospital patients and staff were brutally murdered. He managed to escape and made his way to the town of Bukavu and he opened the Panzi Hospital. His very first patient was a victim of sexual assault which he thought was an anomaly. It wasn’t. A flood of women and girls of all ages filled his hospital, victims of an ongoing war.

Dr. Mukwege described the despair he felt at treating so many patients, many who were maimed or pregnant from rape. Schuler-Deschryver echoed that feeling of despair when she described how she became a shadow of herself after holding a six-month old baby who died in her arms. “I did not believe in God anymore,” she said during the Q&A.

In 2007, Dr. Mukwege traveled to NYC to appeal to the UN to help the people of the DRC. There he met Ensler, who was moved to help. She is best known as the writer of the Vagina Monologues, a play that raises millions of dollars for victims of gender-based violence every year.

Through their efforts, the women of the DRC now have a safe haven—a place to thrive. As one resident of City of Joy said after she was raped, “I prayed for death, but I could not have it. But I could not have life either.” City of Joy gives these survivors a new life and turns their suffering into power. Many of them leave to become educators, social workers, farmers, students, journalists, and activists.

One of the first graduates of the City of Joy programs, the effervescent Mukuninwa said that after being raped repeatedly for two months by militia men, she lost the respect and love of her family. But City of Joy has given her a new family. After her ordeal, “No one hugged me or gave me love. But at the City of Joy, I received a lot of love,” Mukuninwa said following the screening. “Now I’m always very happy. I help my sisters to stay in the light.”

Rebecca DeRosa is a writer, musician, and yoga teacher living in Brooklyn. When she’s not writing reviews for Tom Tom Magazine, she is playing drums in the band Fisty.