Rape has become a primary weapon in that war, says Geoffrey Keele, a UNICEF spokesman.”A lot of the women we talked to had said that this is just their lot in life and it is something to be endured,” he says. Keele says rape is designed to destroy the Congolese community. Husbands, families and villages often shun rape victims. A weak and divided community is easier to conquer. Congolese women have traditionally held such low status that many expect violence from their husbands and men, Keele says.

“Rape is designed not just to injure and dehumanize the women but impact their families and communities,” Keele says.
The City of Joy is designed to change that attitude. It is the product of a partnership with UNICEF and V-Day, a global movement Ensler launched to end violence against women and girls. The city, which Ensler hopes to open in September 2009, will offer counseling, education and entrepreneurial training to rape victims.

Ensler says she’s met plenty of Congolese women who are primed to “turn their pain into power.” Some are already risking their lives to report their rape and stand up to men, she says.”These are the strongest and most incredible women on the planet,” Ensler says.

They are women like Lumo Furaha who recently told V-Day why she decided to talk publicly about the time scores of armed men raped her repeatedly.”They wanted to destroy me; destroy my body and kill my spirit,” she recalled. “I am speaking out because I don’t want any child of the next generation to have to live through what I have lived through.”It may be too late, however, for Furaha’s wish to come true. Congo’s next generation is already being twisted, Ensler says.

She says many boys have been forced to watch their mothers and sisters raped. She wonders what kind of men these boys will become if no one helps them sort through what they’ve seen.
“There is no place in the culture for a boy to say, ‘I feel powerless and broken,’ ” she says. “He becomes violent.”

Ensler says she saw a frightening example of that ripple effect during her last trip to Congo. She was in a hospital when nurses brought in a 3-year-old girl who had been raped — by two 10-year-old boys.

Congo’s future, she says, may look even more frightening than its past.