Did you know? “Without USHINDI, well… I would be dead,” says a
young Congolese woman, who asked that her name not be shared to
protect her from backlash in her community. USHINDI, meaning
“victory” in Kiswahili, is a USAID-funded program that IMA World
Health and partners are implementing for survivors of sexual and
gender based violence (SGBV) in the eastern region of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The United Nations has
referred to eastern DRC as the “rape capital of the world.” In
addition to the armed militias that conduct mass rapes to
humiliate and scatter village populations, longstanding
practices of inequality and oppression perpetuate the violence
that women are vulnerable to every day. USHINDI, a 5 year
program, supports survivors of SGBV through a holistic approach
that incorporates four key elements: medical treatment,
psychosocial counseling, legal support to bring attackers to
justice, and economic support in the form of microloans, skills
training and literacy training. In 2011, IMA r