Dr. Mukwege: call to action

On 3 hours of sleep and with a lecture deficit of almost 20 hours, I dragged myself out of bed this morning to catch the tail end of Grand Rounds with Dr. Mukwege, Congolese (DRC) fistula surgeon who treats thousands of women every year suffering atrocities from gang rape and violence - mechanisms of "mass weapons of war" in the "deadliest war in the world today."

In the small group breakfast that followed, a group of Ghanaian medical students, American medical students and Ob/Gyn faculty alike were captivated by Dr. Mukwege's powerful words and call to action. He has risked his own life in his work on traumatic fistula, speaking to the need to stay and "fight for change in Africa."

Having worked on obstetric fistula repair and prevention in Uganda with EngenderHealth and the Uganda Village Project, I'm happy to see that the issue of traumatic fistula - with double physical and psychological trauma - is finally gaining international attention.

Much of the story is disheartening - that soldiers also commit rapes and thus cannot help guard the hospital | that people are adverse to hearing about "gross" injuries to body parts not commonly discussed, such that the translator at the Wallenberg Award talk "sanitized" Dr. Mukwege's language | that the government's lack of response may be linked to its financial ties to cobalt mining, and those who speak out are routinely killed. As Dr. Tim Johnson pointed out, this is truly a new kind of terrorism against women.

However, Dr. Mukwege reminds those of us in the medical profession that "Because we see things that others don't see and hear things that others don't hear, we have a greater responsibility to testify." Indeed, the power of the white coat in credibility and ability to use provocative language ("Bill Clinton can't say the word 'vagina'" - TRBJ) means we need to tell those stories, no matter how much apprehension we are met with.

In the face of such global injustices, we are reminded to "keep history near" (Rwandan genocide was not that long ago, and we promised "never again") and to commit to global citizenship (echoing President Clinton's UMich 2007 commencement speech). The international community is failing to halt the tragedy in Kivu -the least we can do is to increase global attention.

To learn more:

The Greatest Silence, documentary recently released on the atrocities committed against women and Dr. Mukwege's work

And a shout-out to Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues and activist working end violence against women, who is leveraging the V-Day movement to help build a rehabilitation center for traumatic fistula survivors in the DRC.