On Gratitude Versus Suffering: Resiliency Can Rise

The 16 Days of Activism is a worldwide campaign to end violence against women. Photo credit: UN Women.

Today is Thanksgiving in my country of origin. It is the holiday in which families and friends gather to share a long meal and be together. To talk. To laugh. To be thankful.

In France, where I live such long meals happen quite often, to the point I grow tired of dining. Sometimes at long dinners here, I remember myself as a small child at my grandmother's Thanksgiving table covered in pumpkin pies, growing more and more restless in the sunroom of their lovely home near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania because the plastic chair cover was sticking to my tights from sitting so long.

How far I have come from those days. In some ways. In fact, during the past two years, I have learned more about resiliency and growth because living in a foreign country is like shaking off any idea of cultural rules and trying to not judge myself or others for not understanding what is often perceived as cultural givens. Points of growth come from understanding that the phrase, "It's cultural," somehow gives credibility for why things are the way they are.

Upon some reflection, I have come to the conclusion that this Thanksgiving I am most thankful for my ability to summon resiliency. I imagine that by working nonstop most of my life for certain goals that I will attain them, that if I do not give up, eventually, I will look up and one day, the goal will arrive. This is not to say, any goal just arrives or all of them. It is to say that through effort, determination, and resiliency that keeping on, eventually, leads one to true change.

As an athlete, that happened for me. I ran two ultramarathons with a heart problem when most cardiologists said that I could not. Then opted due to more severe heart complications during graduate school to have a heart surgery that confirmed what I had always sort of known, that my heart issue was far more severe than thought for the seventeen years preceding. Yet, I remember laying on the surgery table wide awake, watching my heart beating on the screen completely outside of my own body's control, and the cardiologist actually asking me if I was sure I had supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) because he could not find it. I thought to myself, this man has my heart in his hands, literally, yet he knows nothing of my life story. Of what brought me here, to this moment. He has no idea how often during races, I had to ensure that I took care of myself better than everyone around me because my SVT was not just a quickened heart rate; that when my SVT launched, my chest rocked, my eyes rolled back in my head, my lips sucked in and the loss of oxygen usually rendered me unaware within minutes. He does not know the moment I decided to do this was watching my baby sister's distressed face in the streets of Paris as I tried to calm my SVT because I swore with only four days in Paris, she would not spend her last full day in a hospital. Instead, I just looked at him and said, "Yes, I am sure. I am positive, I have SVT."

A few minutes later, he found the problem in the core of my heart.  He then called in another cardiologist for a second opinion because the risk had grown enormously.

I walk often by the Institute that performed the successful heart surgery as it is around the corner from my pink cottage. I stare inside and think back to how I willed myself on that table to keep going and now my heart problem is resolved. The same way I willed the 17-year-old girl from a violent home to believe in my own education and my dreams to live in Manhattan. The same way I willed the 25-year-old homeowner trying to protect my property before the global financial crisis on a publishing salary. The same way, I willed the 28-year-old to move to Paris to study French at Sorbonne. Just keep going, eventually I will get there. And, I have. I stood this May one year after my heart surgery and walked the stage earning my Master's degree, a goal that took more years than I dare count.

Yet, that moment the cardiologist questioned a reality so real to me reminded me starkly of the times in my life when I have shared incredible truths, risked intense vulnerability, only to have someone stare back at me with disbelief and question that truth. And, often those times had to do with me as a victim of violence. It reminded me of the British police detective who erred constantly as he investigated my sexual assault, which had happened in a very well-known London hotel. It reminded me of the ninth grade history professor who gave me a zero in his class even after I told him my final paper was late because I had been having heart problems that no one seemed to understand but kept telling me were from anxiety, although I remained completely silent of the swell of domestic violence occurring in my family's home at the same time because of my own personal shame and the culture that grew that.

On this Thanksgiving, my thoughts are focused on why culture is often used as a blanket reason for why things are the way they are. Not American culture. Or French culture. But the pervasive global culture that accepts women worldwide are harmed.

Two days ago, on November 25,  international organizations and NGOs worldwide launched the 16 Days of Activism to end violence against women. The violent stories I replay in my mind from my own life trying to make sense of my own story. The stories I have listened to from young women in Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, France, the United States. The frequency of violence is astounding.

According to the World Health Organization, "Estimates suggest that one in three women globally have experienced either physical or sexual violence from a partner, or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives, and that levels of violence against women and girls remain extremely high."

And, that in some parts of the world, sexual violence is endemic – reports of non-partner sexual violence are as high as 21% in areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

Violence against women is a global pandemic, not confined to any one country or region. UN Women says, "around 120 million girls worldwide (slightly more than 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives." In the United States alone, the World Bank estimates that, "annual costs of intimate partner violence have been calculated at USD 5.8 billion."

That is outright and costly human suffering from every angle.

What does most research suggest as the way to end violence against women? UN Women suggests the current culture of shame and discrimination that surrounds violence against women has to shift.

Violence against women and girls is rooted in gender-based discrimination and social norms and gender stereotypes that perpetuate such violence. Given the devastating effect violence has on women, efforts have mainly focused on responses and services for survivors. However, the best way to end violence against women and girls is to prevent it from happening in the first place by addressing its root and structural causes.

Change has to happen. In response, from November 25 to December 10, the 16 Days of Activism calls on governments, organizations, advocates, and you to call for an end to gender-based violence as a basic human right. The United Nations urges participation in Orange your Neighbourhood, to wear orange to reflect your support in breaking the stigma that surrounds violence against women. To change the culture of acceptance to that of nonacceptance.

I think today of the many loved friends, family, and colleagues I have in my life, and visually if we all sat down at a Thanksgiving table how so many of us would be wearing orange. How so many of us have experienced violence in some way. And, how all of us have channeled that experience in our own way to heal and find resiliency.

Then, I think of all the incredible women I have met all over the world who have found or will need to find that kind of resiliency to move beyond the suffering that comes from gender-based violence, and I am thankful for the strength that can be forged in a collective culture that does not accept violence against women. It reminds me to stay resilient in my pursuit to ensure greater human rights for all of us everywhere. Because, if we just keep going, one day, through effort, determination, and resiliency, that keeping on will lead us to true change: women everywhere will be safer. And, that will be the worldwide culture, just the way things are.

The 16 Days of Activism ends on December 10, Human Rights Day.  

This Valentine's Day, One Billion People Rising to Stop Violence Against Women

[Editor's Note: This post was written by IMOW Her Blueprint's Senior Editor Kate Stence along with Maura Farrell, a co-editor of the Debating Human Rights blog. The original post appeared on Debating Human Rights.]

In recent weeks, global mainstream media has covered persistent and widespread violence against women in a range of countries.

In India, the gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on December 16, 2012 resulted in public condemnation and outcry from both India’s strengthening middle class and international organizations such as UN Women. Raped and mutilated with an iron bar at the hands of a group of six men while aboard a moving bus, the anonymous victim finally succumbed to massive internal injuries on December 29, after battling for her life for thirteen days in a Singapore hospital. Rape and rape-related deaths are a national problem in India.

In 2011, India was ranked 134th by UNDP’s gender equality index, highlighting the plight of Indian women and girls, who are under-fed and under-educated relative to males. Dowry violence, marital and in-law abuse, and reproductive sex selection are examples of the pervasive hardships for Indian women created from extreme gender inequalities. Sexual violence in Indian villages is so common that it keeps women indoors after dark, and the migration of rural Indian men to overcrowded slums means that the growing predation goes unchecked. Low persecution and even lower conviction rates for rape and other crimes against women exacerbate the violence.

While urbanization and societal tension may partly explain India’s violence against women, The Economist recently argued that it is India’s growing middle class, united in outrage against the horrible events of December 16, that could provide impetus for the changes needed to bring about an end to violence against women in India. This particular woman’s rape and death provoked such extreme public outcry throughout India because she was part of India’s emerging middle class. Too close to home for many members of India’s middle class to tolerate, this crime resulted in unprecedented galvanization which could be a major turning point with emancipatory potential for India’s women.

In Guatemala, 707 women were murdered in 2012. On January 16, 2013, one month after the gang-rape incident in Delhi, the bodies of two girls, aged six and twelve, were found brutally slain on a street in Guatemala City. That same day, the bodies of two more women were discovered in separate locations.

Amnesty International describes the situation in Guatemala as a “war on women.” “Authorities in Guatemala are putting the lives of women at risk by systematically failing to protect them and ensure those responsible for the hundreds of killings that take place each year face justice.” Although the Guatemalan congress passed a law establishing special tribunals and sentencing guidelines directed specifically at reducing violence against women, this has failed to change the staggering number of killings of women and children reported each month in Guatemala. Tireless fighting for justice on the parts of family members of women and girls whose murders remain unsolved and insufficiently investigated, and never prosecuted has made the issue one of national scandal for Guatemala.

In Somalia, Nura Hirsi, a young widow living in an internationally displaced persons (IDP) encampment in Mogadishu, claims she was raped by seven government soldiers who forced into her home on December 29, 2012.

Al Jazerra, reporting on the continued vulnerability of women in Mogadishu, maintained that in the wake of two decades of protracted conflict in Somalia, “there’s now a sense of relative calm and security in Somalia,” but that not everyone enjoys these new feelings of freedom. Violence and insecurity are still persistent problems affecting women in IDP encampments. Explaining why the police did nothing and seemed not to care about what happened to Nura Hirsi, she explained: “People get killed in Mogadishu; I didn't die. To them rape isn't so serious. Nobody is ever arrested.”

Posting in New York Times Nicholas Kristof’s blog On the Ground, Lisa Shannon recently urged Secretary Clinton to stand up for rape victims during her first official meeting with the new Somali president, Hassan Sheik Mohamud. Shannon argues that since the Somali government has reportedly harassed advocates thought to be aiding Hirsi, this could undo tireless efforts to shift the stigma toward rape and urge rape victims to come forward. According to Fartun Abdisalan Adan, who co-founded the sexual violence crisis center Sister Somalia with Shannon, “This sets us so far back.”

Shannon writes, “In this fragile moment, the US and other donor nations have a choice: Communicate a zero tolerance policy for this behavior. Or, like Congo, shrug off this crisis as inevitable, leaving sexual violence to fester into a pandemic. Will we again write big checks, while we sacrifice women on the altar of international diplomacy?” In her remarks on January 16, Secretary Clinton indeed expressed concern about violence against women in Somalia to President Hassan Sheik. “We have particular concerns” she said, “about the dangers facing displaced people, especially women, who continue to be vulnerable to violence, rape, and exploitation.”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, renewed high-level conflict has resulted in a death toll that is the highest loss of life since World War II, with 5.4 million lives lost in over a decade of war. The prevalence of rape as a weapon of war and intimate partner sexual violence is astronomical. As such, the DRC is often referred to as the “the rape capital of the world.”

In 2011, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) released a study confirming widespread rapes throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Approximately 1.69 to 1.80 million women reported having been raped in their lifetime and approximately 3.07 to 3.37 million women reported experiencing intimate partner sexual violence.” Even higher levels of rape were reported within the area of North Kivu, where two months ago the offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said the situation was worsening for vulnerable populations due to recent fighting.

These already harrowing statistics may in fact be conservative estimates. A Guardian article quotes Michelle Hindin, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a specialist on gender-based violence, as saying, “because the figures were collected during face-to-face interviews – where women could be less forthcoming – the figures could be much higher.”

In 2012, a more comprehensive study released by two organizations, Sonke Gender Justice Network and Promundo, confirmed that rape in Congo has essentially become “a cultural norm throughout the entire country” and is part of daily life. Lauren Wolfe, an award winning journalist and the Director of Women Under Siege, an independent initiative investigating how rape and other forms of sexualized violence are used as tools in genocide and modern-day conflict, is known for documenting vulnerable women’s voices who are often silenced by war and rarely exist within mainstream media. The organization argues that the nexus of war and sexual violence for women in Congo is one of the worst that has ever existed. Last year, the DRC ranked last—absolutely last—on UNDP’s Human Development Index, which is essentially a state of reverse development.

In Pakistan, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, a well-known activist for girl’s education, was on a bus returning home from a day at school on October 9, 2012, when armed members of the Taliban stopped the vehicle and shot her in the head and chest. The teenager was treated for extensive injuries as the bullets entered above her left eye, ran along her jaw line, and grazed her brain. Her survival is an act of heroism in and of itself, but Malala has lived heroically for years. In 2009, the Taliban routinely destroyed girl’s schools and attacked women with acid to dissuade them from attending school and attaining an education. Malala posted her diary on the BBC’s Web site, exposing the Taliban’s myriad acts of violence against women. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize and in 2012 was the runner-up for Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Last week, Malala completed her last round of surgery and will continue rehabilitation at home. Unlike so many other women and girls who face gender-based violence, Malala won. Her story both brings hope and highlights injustices.  Malala’s survival means she will continue to live in a world where a 23-year-old woman risks her life in India by riding a bus.

Success in eradicating violence against women would mean not only a world that no longer accepts rape, gender-based violence, or rampant inequalities as a fact of life, but laws that prosecute those who participate in these crimes. This requires sanctioned and implemented laws, community-based programs, and increased activism. In 1999, a study released on violence against women found that, around the world at least one woman in every three, or up to one billion women, has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. In the almost fifteen years since that study, after reading these stories, can we honestly say that eliminating violence against women is not one of our world’s greatest priorities?

Today is V-day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls spanning over 167 countries. One Billion Rising is their most ambitious campaign to date. Their web site says, “One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. One billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women dancing is a revolution.”

This Valentine's Day rise up against pervasive violence against females. The time to eradicate gender-based violence is now. 

 Photo credits: Al Jazeera and The Telegraph

MAKE CHANGE: Sign the Congo NOW! Petition

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is said to be the most dangerous place to be a woman. Every week over 150 Congolese women are raped as a weapon of war. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Congolese women have been raped for the past 15 years because conflict has enveloped the region. Death tolls range between three to five million people.

In his new book, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa, Jason K. Stearns, who once worked for the United Nations in Congo, traces the story of why and how atrocious acts such as mass rape and genocide continue to be ignored. Recently, a New York Times article cited a study within Dancing in the Glory of Monsters that shows how in 2006 the NY Times gave four times as much coverage to Darfur, although Congolese have died in far greater numbers.

The reason? The NY Times says the DRC's conflict is exceptionally stunning in its complexity, which, frankly, it is. In consequence, enter the creation of Congo NOW!, a coalition of NGO’s and grassroots organizations ranging from Oxfam International to Save the Children that are joining together in order to campaign for the safety of Congolese women and children.

The International Rescue Committee, a member of the coalition, recently sent out a field report about the Congo emergency and highlighted "typical" rape victims' experiences.

I was out in the field farming when several soldiers approached me. I was dragged out of the field against my will. I was held captive and raped repeatedly for days. When I was released, I had nowhere to go to get medical care for my injuries. My family and friends shunned me as a disgraced woman.

How many Congolese women and children have to be victimized before there is a solution to stop mass rape?

According to Kate Hughes of Women for Women International, an organization with rehabilitative programs focusing on Congolese women traumatized by rape, "the Congo Now! coalition has agreed on four policy points to halt sexual violence in the DRC."

1. Stop natural resources fueling the conflict.
2. Address the devastating causes and consequences of the conflict and sexual violence particularly for women and children
3. Protect civilians from violence.
4. Promote nonmilitary and regional solutions to the conflict.

"We have launched the campaign," Kate says, "by starting with an action focused on sexual violence. The action is an e-action targeting Lynne Featherstone, International Violence Against Women champion."

Help support the work of Congo Now! and sign the Congo Now! petition. Your signature brings women and children in Congo one step closer to safety.

Photo credit: Fiona and Studio 9 Films

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Violence in American Politics

Two weeks ago, on New Year's Day as I ran along the Hudson River in Manhattan en route to the Brooklyn Bridge in celebration of a new year, I passed a young woman wearing a shirt that said, "Women's rights are human rights...," the phrase made famous by Hillary Clinton in her rousing 1995 speech delivered at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. The bold, black lettering on the runner's white t-shirt reminded me of the volunteer work I did for Clinton's campaign for the presidency. How often I was jarred while making calls to constituents throughout my country who told me they would never vote for her. "ABC," they said, "Anything But Clinton." When I asked why, it was almost always, "Because she's a woman."

For the past weeks, I've been working on a story about Afghanistan since I landed back in America two months ago and walked into the airport to face an enormous television showing CNN reports of new tanks for the War on Terror, new evidence of terror, new fear to fear. I watched non-US citizens receive ocular scans and a young Indian man lead away from the rest of us to a different room for questioning. Welcome home to America. How much fear will I find here? How much poverty? How much violence?

This past Sunday as I completed my first official training run for Comrades 2011 which I will run for Women for Women International in ode to the silenced hell of violence Congolese women have been living for over a decade; tears came at moments while I ran staring into the sun summoning their plight for my own endurance and strength. I thought again about what I see in our world and now home in my own country. I thought about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, pictured here, and her weekend shooting, along with 19 others including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl born on September 11, 2001.

While living in Paris, I read The New York Times daily and during America's 2010 election I was at times horrifed by the language coming out of my country. The rhetoric was volatile. The NY Times piece Being Glenn Beck shared that, "during the first 14 months of his Fox News Show, Beck and his guests mentioned facism 172 times, Nazis 134 times, Hitler 115 times, the Holocaust 58 times, and Joseph Goebbels 8 times."

Enter the media's current discussion of how much violent rhetoric leads to action. The Huffington Post, along with myriad other major new sources, report cross hairs once appeared on Sarah Palin's FaceBook page of Congresswoman Gifford's district. The blog questions whether or not these cross hairs have any bearance on the shooting by noting what major news sources covered their existence versus those who bypassed it, while also citing a March 25, 2010 MSNBC article where Giffords herself says she found the cross hairs relevant. The Washington Post poses the poignant question in the headline, Gabrielle Gifford's Shooting in Tuscon, Did it Stem from State of Political Discourse?

At brunch in Chelsea yesterday, a friend asked if I thought Gifford's shooting had to do with the fact she is a woman in politics. Rather than pummel him with my litany of gender-based violence statistics facing females worldwide, I replied that nothing ever has one reason. Her gender cannot be the only reason. Instead, I shared that as this country wades through the beginning steps of untangling this tragedy and recognizes that violence in America is now undoubtedly creating outright acts of murder in the political sphere that these questions are exactly the kind that need to be addressed and soon.

The Associated Press' Tucson Rampage Casts Light on Toxic Political Tone shares the mounting acts of vandalism and threats Representative Gabrielle Giffords faced before this final horrendous act. In the coming weeks as answers to how and why are found, I hope most for America to shift focus onto what cannot be denied: volatile discourse does nothing to solve this country's mounting needs and though it is not the only reason for Representative Gabrielle Gifford's shooting, it most likely is one of them.

How Vital is the International Violence Against Women Act?

Last week as I strolled through rainy Paris to La Poste to send off my absentee ballot to America, I kept reminding myself, Barbara Boxer will triumph. So will Kirsten Gillibrand. With election outcomes that cannot be called anything less than challenging, victory for these two women Senators seemed essential to help ensure the passing of the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA).

Originally introduced by John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Boxer to the House and the Senate in February 2010, the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) was highlighted by Her Blueprint in late August in a MAKE CHANGE article while the act was making its way through Congress. In late September, the bill stalled.

However, the same statistics remain: Amnesty International cites that "one out of every three women worldwide has been physically or sexually abused during her lifetime with rates of domestic violence reaching 70 percent in some countries."

Erin Kennedy, Policy Advocate for CARE, an organization that works to end global poverty by empowering marginalized women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities, recently shared her thoughts on why she has been advocating to gain more support for IVAWA.

Based in Washington D.C. along with a team of policy and advocacy professionals, Erin advocates CARE’s mission: to focus on pivotal policies and legislation that will impact poor women and girls and work to influence the U.S. Congress, the Administration, and other key agencies. Right now, her focus is on the International Violence Against Women Act for a variety of sound reasons.

As Erin shares, "There is unprecedented support and momentum for the legislation with over 150 U.S. groups including faith-based, human rights, refugee and women’s organizations that support the bill. In addition, support from the American public is strong as well. A 2009 poll found that 61% of voters across demographic and political lines thought global violence against women should be one of the top international priorities for the U.S. government, and 82% supported I-VAWA legislation when it was explained to them."

IVAWA promotes efforts to reduce women’s and girls’ vulnerability to violence through programs aimed at improving their economic status and ensuring access to educational opportunities. The legislation also aims to support community level efforts to change harmful norms that lead to social tolerance of violence against women and girls. IVAWA will also buttress programs to help women and girl survivors of violence gain access to the legal system, and ensure safety and support throughout the legal process. In these multi-sectoral holistic efforts, IVAWA supports the development of societies where women’s and girls’ rights are recognized and promoted, and the problem of violence against women is effectively reduced.

That said, thousands of bills are up for legislation and many never make it into practice. The reason, Erin says, that IVAWA is so essential is that it is a first. "IVAWA is the first coordinating effort by the U.S. government to tackle violence against women and girls throughout the world. It aims to address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) by increasing violence prevention and response efforts within U.S. foreign assistance and diplomacy."

In August, Her Blueprint also reported in Health Versus Harm: Zero Tolerance on Violence Against Women and Girls that Gender-Based Violence amounts to an uncontained crisis. Accordingly, IVAWA would direct the State Department, in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to create, develop, then implement a comprehensive five-year strategy to prevent violence against women and girls for five to 20 countries which are experiencing significant levels of violence.

Erin asserts that through "decades of experience working with communities to address poverty in more than 70 countries globally, CARE has found that empowering women and girls yields dramatic benefits for families, entire communities, and nations. But we [CARE] has also found that violence against women and girls is one of the key barriers to empowering women and addressing issues of poverty and inequality. So a bill such as IVAWA, that addresses violence, is important not only because it will help to protect and empower women and girls, but also because this will help to reduce poverty and support community development efforts."

In February 2010, when the bill was introduced, Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE stated in a press release, "The introduction of IVAWA sends a strong message that the United States will not stand by while women and girls are repeatedly abused and subjected to violence. The passage of this legislation would be a historic proactive step forward in improving lives around the world, and I urge the American public and members of Congress to support it."

Pictured is an IVAWA advertisement supported by the Family Violence Prevention Fund and Women Thrive Worldwide, two of the 150 organizations pushing for this pivotal bill to pass.

Running for Congolese Women to End Violence

Chris Jackson is running 12 marathons this year for Run for Congo Women to raise awareness about violence against women and children in the Congo. Here he is running the Congo marathon with Congolese children beside him.

Last Sunday morning, Team Congo Paris raced from Paris to Versailles for Run for Congo Women. It was a 15K journey heavy with French history, because King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were brought from Palace Versailles to Palace Tuileres at the start of the French Revolution. Around two miles into the race, came Île des Cygnes along river Seine housing a small version of the Statue of Liberty erected by Americans living here in France. It is a replica of the original standing in New York Harbor given by the French to America as a sign of international friendship in 1886.

The race had authentic historical depth to say the least. Yet, I spent it thinking how all last week while reporting on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), I noted that media did not acknowledge that violence against women and girl’s (VAW/G) is not one of the eight goals specified by the MDGs. In the World's Women at the Center of Achieving the MDGs conference during the UN Summit, one of the first points addressed was that very issue.

In August, Post-AIDS 2010 Conference Her Blueprint highlighted how tied the issue of violence against women and girls to the violation of a plethora of human rights in Health Versus Harm: Zero Tolerance on Violence Against Women and Girls. Yesterday, the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) was up for a critical vote in the United States Senate but was postponed until November. However, Ritu Sharma, co-Founder and President of Women Thrive World Wide published her thoughts about her own grandmother's death in East India in hopes of sharing why the bill should pass when voted on.

“I never met my grandmother. She was burned alive with kerosene doused on her sari and lit on fire. Some think it was suicide, some think it was a dowry murder since her mother-in-law was not pleased with what my grandmother brought into her new husband’s family. She had four children; one of them my mother, the other my uncle, who was just a few months old when she was killed. I cannot imagine her shock, grief and pain in the moments before she died…Regrettably, her story is not uncommon.”

In the United Nation's special meeting World's Women at the Center of Achieving the MDGs, Denmark's Minister of Health noted that women of the Democratic Republic of Congo have to ask their husbands before they can sign a contract or start a business. After citing this statistic, he asked, "Can you imagine?"

To be honest, I cannot imagine any of the previous scenarios. Yet, I know they are happening daily and consistently and have been for a very long time. On Sunday while racing Paris to Versailles, I began reciting statistics in my head about Congolese Women that I know by heart because right now they are who I run for.

“Congo presents one of the world's deadliest emergencies to date. More than 5.4 million people have died since 1998. Gang rape and brutal torture are a daily reality for the women and children of Congo. Women as old as 80 and as young as five have been victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence. 38,000 continue to die every month, 1200 a day. Half of these deaths are children under the age of 5 years.”

At moments I was not sure what to do with all the emotion.

One Man’s Admirable Effort of Support

Chris Jackson, a London lobbyist pictured here running the August 18th marathon in Congo for Run for Congo Women and Women for Women International, is well acquainted with the intensity of emotion and action Congo can provoke because he has devoted himself, utterly, to raising awareness about violence against Congolese women and children as part of his year-long endeavor to run 12 marathons for Run for Congo Women. Already successfully completing nine marathons, including an Ironman as well as an Olympic Triathlon along with a smattering of 10Ks, Chris is someone who is exceptional and sincere in his endeavor -- so much so he will actually be running 13 marathons just to make sure he completes one every month in 2010.

Chris can also voice what most of us can only imagine because he has run Congo. He went. He ran. He returned. And, now he shares why the Congo race was the hardest one so far for him.