Foundation · 2016
Dr Denis Mukwege Foundation
Founded in The Hague to carry internationally what Panzi does in Bukavu: a survivor-centred organisation working to change the global response to conflict-related sexual violence.
Treating people in Bukavu was not enough: the same crimes kept recurring because no one answered for them. The foundation exists so that what is seen in an operating theatre has consequences elsewhere — in a courtroom, in a negotiating room.
Programmes
Holistic care
Taking the Panzi model beyond Congo: medical, psychological, legal and socio-economic, together.
Voice
Connecting survivors in networks — SEMA — so they speak in their own name rather than being described.
Justice and accountability
Holding perpetrators and states to account, and making reparations exist in practice.
The foundation is the logical consequence of something learned at Panzi: you can repair indefinitely and change nothing. As long as sexual violence remains a weapon whose use carries no cost, the same injuries return, carried by other women.
Based in The Hague — the city of the international courts, which is not a coincidence — it works on three fronts: extending the holistic model of care, organising survivors’ own voices, and obtaining accountability.
The SEMA network brings together survivors from more than twenty countries. The principle is constant: they speak, they set the priorities, they carry the demands. The foundation provides the structure, not the script.
www.mukwegefoundation.org