We watched this segment on 60 Minutes last night. More victims than Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur combined? Why don't we hear about this more? Why aren't we waging war on the Congo to free the innocent people there? Perhaps when the objects of attack are women it just doesn't matter as much. Females as young as 3 years old are raped. This is a sex-based genocide, except they aren't usually lucky enough to die. (I would rather die, but then I am not half as tough as these women.)

You need to read or watch this if you haven't heard anything about it. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know more about this before last night. It is worse than hell -- scores of women are raped daily and the rapists get almost no punishment if they're caught at all and usually they aren't. I thought Darfur was bad. One woman was tied down and raped by 6 different men while her brother was forced to watch. Her captors then gave him the choice of either raping his sister or getting macheted to death. What can hell possibly have on this place? Some are raped so badly (and often with objects like broken beer bottles) that they have to start wearing a catheter at age 16.

An organization called Women for Women seems like their only immediate hope: http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.htm
They have received the highest rating possible on Charity Navigator: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7623

I'm definitely going to start sponsoring a woman in the Congo. I think women everywhere need to try to do what they can to help -- no matter how small the action. This is what being a feminist is about.

Quoted: Right now there's a war taking place in the heart of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more people have died there than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur combined ... It is, in fact, a war against women, and the weapon used to destroy them, their families and whole communities, is rape.