Debbie Lithander, Senior Program Officer, IMA World Health shared IMA's USAID-funded Ushindi program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which provides support to victims of sexual violence and explores the root issues contributing to SGBV in the CCIH Capitol Hill briefing in July 2018.

2. Project Ushindi:
Overcoming SGBV in eastern DR Congo

3. Project Ushindi is a 7-year USAID funded Cooperative
Agreement Implemented by three National Partners, and
assisted by three Technical Partners under the leadership of
IMA World Health
• Three National Implementing Partners
– Panzi Foundation
– PPSSP
– Heal Africa
• Two Technical Partners
– ABA-ROLI
– Univ. of Washington /Johns Hopkins Univ.

5. • Objective: Respond to and prevent Sexual &
Gender Based-based Violence
• Strategy: Comprehensive based care of
survivors (35,000 to date) and Community
Based Prevention
• Partners: Heal Africa, Panzi Foundation,
American Bar Association, Search for Common
Ground, and University of Wash/Johns Hopkins
• Funding Agency: USAID
• Duration: Five Years (2018-2022)

7. Heal Africa implements in
North Kivu Province

8. Panzi Foundation
Implements in South Kivu
Province

9. American Bar Association-Rule of Law Initiative (ABA-
ROLI) assures the dissemination of human rights
awareness and represents victims and survivors
through five legal clinics at no cost to clients

10. Search for Common Ground, works with local communities to uncover
drivers of conflict and works with local communities to find
lasting and durable solutions to conflict and reconciliation and peace between
parties.

11.  Psychosocial
 Medical
 Legal
 Socio-Economic
USHINDI provides holistic care; four key
integrated inventions to survivors and their
communities to overcome sexual violence

12. 1. Psycho-social Counseling
A community-based
counselor based in 108
health regions serves
as the person of first
contact to survivors of
SGBV
816 Community lay counselors
and 23 psychologists trained
31,811 survivors of SGBV received
counseling (107% target)

13. 2. Medical Care
Health care providers in 108
health facilities have been trained
in national (MoH) treatment
protocols for sexual assault and
documenting evidence for future
prosecution.
All victims of sexual assault
receive comprehensive care
including PEP kits (w/in 72 hrs)
795 Health Care Providers Trained
18,206 victims received medical care
(including PEP Kits) from Ushindi

14. 3. Legal Representation
IMA partners with ABA (American Bar
Association under the Ushindi Program to
advocate for gender related rights and provide
legal representation to not only survivors only
sexual assault but all areas of SGBV- related
discrimination (spousal protection, inheritance,
arranged labor, trafficking
14,327 persons received
legal assistance
3,218 cases taken to court
(531 judgements)

15. 4. Social-Economic Reintegration
918 VSLAs created with 34,944 members
(90% women…over 4000 survivors)
45,661 persons assisted by gender focused
livelihood projects (social funds)

16. Community-Based Approach of
Holistic Care and Prevention

17. Core community groups

18. Noyaux Communautaire
“ Community Core
Groups “
“ Safe Houses“

19. Youth Clubs o Led by youth (boys and girls)
o Extremely effective way to foster positive
behavior, attitudes, and practices regarding
gender attitude and women’s rights

21. Expanded SBCC
(Social Behavior Communication for Change)

23. Ushindi Films

25. Outreach & Campaigns

26. International Women’s Day

27. Lessons learned
• 1. Ushindi’s holistic and integrated approach has proven to
be more-cost effective than programs that have only one or
two approaches and are not integrated into government
and community systems.
• 2. In the Ushindi model, survivors have been able to access
all services through one provider and in proximal settings
(i.e. psychosocial, legal, and reintegration services are all
offered in private and secure safe houses, with referrals to
nearby health facilities or, if needed, referral thereafter to
partner supported hospitals). This has significantly reduced
the number of drop-outs in the referral pathway.

28. Lessons learned
• 3. Besides being the interface between project and community, Noyaux
Communautaires proved to be an effective tool for community awareness
raising as well as sustainability. When community mobilization initiatives
such as VSLAs and Noyaux Communautaires meet community
expectations and become fully “owned” by the community, then
community leaders can sustain those results as well as expand on other
initiatives (i.e., for gender equity and family planning) without the need
for continued external funding.
• 4. Community leader involvement in the project (political, religious,
security) helps survivors access services in a safe and secure setting and
helps to identify and hold accountable perpetuators of sexual violence,
thus reducing the staggering incidence of SGBV in certain communities in
Eastern DRC.

29. Lessons learned
• 5. Mobile courts, besides bringing legal services closer to beneficiaries, like
mobile CPT therapy, avoid the costs and stigma of travel outside their
communities. They also serve as a significant deterrent to sexual violence,
as community members actually witness justice being carried out when
convictions and sentences are pronounced and perpetrators are
handcuffed and transported to jail.
• 6. Restorative justice is a necessary follow-on to retributive justice.
Otherwise, even after perpetrators have been prosecuted, survivors
lacking reparations still face significant challenges.
• 7. In order to promote positive change and gender equity, active
involvement of youth is required to effect long-term changes of
perspectives and practices in areas such as family planning, gender
attitudes, and women’s rights.

30. Lessons learned
• 8. Women whose skills and contributions were often marginalized
showed their true value by organizing and expanding VSLAs. Many
became success models to other women and girls in the community
and are challenging traditional norms regarding gender equity and
empowerment.
• 9. To help SGBV survivors to benefit from VSLAs, organizations need
to find mechanisms to help survivors find the financial means to
join, while taking care to avoid stigmatization.
• 10. With many extra VSLAs created by communities, the number of
VSLAs at the end of the project was far beyond expectations. Self-
created livelihood activities such as VSLAs are unique opportunities
for community development.

32. Target communities demonstrate greater acceptance of
positive gender roles

35. Over all Strategy:
Community Based
Approach to
Prevent and to
Respond
to SGBV!

36. I’m going to tell you the story of Furaha (substitute name meaning
Joy), one of the survivors we have managed to assist through our
SGBV project in Walikale, a remote village in the North Kivu province,
in Eastern DRC.
I first met her at one of her first therapy sessions during field
supervision visits, and I was there at the last therapy session when she
shared her testimony:
She had lost her husband and many other family members during an
armed attack to their village a few years before. She remained the one
to look after her five children and her grandparents thanks to her field
production. This is her story.....

37. “One day, my village was attacked again by a militia. They set fire to my house. I barely managed to
save my five children, but my grandparents did not survive.
Afterwards, we were captured and I was gagged and raped by the militia, one by one, in front of my
children. Finally, they left me bound and naked in the bush and I was assisted by some passers-by. I no
longer wanted to live. I felt naked to the world, mocked within my community, and became
chronically sick. I felt completely destroyed. I was sad, ashamed, and felt useless. I wanted to die.
I was incapable of even completing ordinary tasks of living: my hut was in a mess, my children were
dirty, they had nothing to eat, and could not go to school. I felt deserted by the world.
One morning a counsellor came to my village to talk about SGBV and identify people like me who
might benefit from counselling. I was invited to participate in a group therapy: Cognitive Processing
Therapy (CTP) a form or therapy for PTSD. At first, I doubted that these could help; but I was
desperate and had nothing to lose.
Little by little I was surprised to find that life began to make sense again. And after completing the
twelve therapy sessions, I feel renewed; I had hope.
Today I am alive again. I feel strong, capable of caring for my children, and cultivating my field. The
income from those fields permit her to send my children back to school. Life is starting again”.

39. AKSANTI
SANA
Thank you very much.
39