Step By Step: Building A Movement In Congo

This is the first post in our month-long series featuring Greatest Women of the Day, in recognition of Women's History Month.

To nominate a Greatest Woman of the Day, email [e-mail].

A few years ago, Run for Congo Women founder Lisa Shannon didn't know where Democratic Republic of Congo was.

"I couldn't find it on a map of Africa and I certainly didn't know there was a war," she admitted.

But in 2005, an afternoon of "Oprah" opened her eyes to a conflict that continues to be the deadliest war since World War II. According to Shannon, the violence in Congo also constitutes the worst sexual violence perpetrated against women in the world.

After learning about the conflict in Congo and the work of Women for Women International, Lisa immediately sponsored two women through Women for Women International, an organization on the ground in Congo.

"That first step changed everything," Lisa said. "I felt like I had friend living through the conflict."

For her second step, Lisa decided to run 30 miles to raise money for women in Congo. Soon after, she founded Run for Congo Women, an organization that holds fundraising runs in the U.S. and around the world to benefit Women for Women International's operations.

Lisa raised almost $28,000 on her first run. To date, Run for Congo Women has raised over $1 million.

Today, Lisa remains frustrated by the lack of action from the international community. She frames the issues by recounting a conversation with a Congolese woman who had been gang-raped.

"She told me she was begging for her life and one man said: 'Even if we killed you it wouldn't matter, you're like an animal, you wouldn't be missed,'" Lisa said.

"I felt and still feel that the international community has sided with that guy in a lot of ways. By not taking action, we are sending the same message, that they're not quite human," she added.

This feeling was reiterated to Lisa by a reporter who said the press consciously ignored the ongoing violence in the region.

"He said to me: 'It's widely understood that Americans don't have room in their psyches for more than one international conflict and that was Iraq,'" she said. "And I just refused to accept that."

Lisa would like to see the international community, along with the U.S., develop a plan to address the conflict, instead of pouring $1 billion annually into the country without concrete demands for change on the part of the Congolese government.

"Fourteen years into the deadliest conflict in decades, we need to be able to say to their government: 'Our support of you is contingent on your engagement in ending this,'" she insisted.

For her part, Lisa is focused on building momentum behind her base of fundraising and media support.

"We've cultivated a lot of emotional bonds between women in the U.S. and in Congo. I want to leverage these to end the violence. I want Congo to be a movement, like Darfur."

Comments

[AyeChart]

02:27 PM on 03/14/2011

First the Congo, then Chicago!  End the violence.

[Lincoln Gibbons]

03:04 PM on 03/10/2011

It's good to see that people are finally becoming educated about the state of the DRC. Not only are people dying everyday, the native animals of that area are in incredible danger as well.

[godwithin]

06:25 AM on 03/07/2011

We need to inform conflict minerals consumers. I have posted information in my comments on the Tech section of HuffPo, there were compassionate and contemptuous replies. We have been neglecting this crisis for too long. I had no knowledge myself prior to 2010. I held my cellphone and wondered how could I not know, I'm writing from my laptop knowing there is "blood" on my hands.

[GlobalGramma]

03:15 PM on 03/04/2011

16 years in to the deadliest conflict since World War II,
with 5.4 million dead as of 1/2008,
45,000 new dead each month, and
more than 3 million women brutally gang raped by militias and the Congolese Army, and There is still NO COORDINATED, COHESIVE PLAN (much less effort) by the international community to begin addressing it!

Who are we as human beings to continue to ignore this desperate suffering?

[repugnicansfearme]

08:58 AM on 03/02/2011

Good for her. See, you don't have to be a Hollywood star to care.

[Ngonyama]

05:29 PM on 03/01/2011

Mais qu'est-ce qu'elle en saurait?

[Emetser Frieden]

04:22 PM on 03/01/2011

For people who want to read more about this topic, another American woman, named Amy Ernst, has been working against rape in Congo for the last year.
Her New York Times blogs are here: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/author/amy-ernst/
And her own website is here: http://thekingeffect.blogspot.com/

[GlobalGramma]

03:23 PM on 03/04/2011

We need a thousand more women and men like Lisa and Amy. Thank you both and all others who have been investing their blood, sweat, tears and treasure to make a difference in Congolese lives when the international community and our governments continue to sit on their hands. It will take all of us, doing all we can, to wake our governments up. Meanwhile, we move forward ourselves, in whatever fronts and ways we can.

[squiems]

03:25 PM on 03/01/2011

I'm glad she is trying to raise some money and bring awareness to the conflict. But doesn't it seem a little rich how this article is about a white american woman who, by her own admission, couldn't find the country on a map 5 years ago and was informed on the conflict through oprah? There are people who have done LOADS more to stop the conflict, only most americans can't pronounce their names.

[GlobalGramma]

03:27 PM on 03/04/2011

Should she just have sat on her hands and done nothing because she is white?

Tens of millions of people have learned about what is going on in Congo because Shannon has been on the front lines telling that story to the public and the media for the last 6 years.

I hope all of those who have been working for Congo get JUST as much publicity. Congo needs all the media we can get for it if the relentless violence is ever going to end there.

[Lincoln Gibbons]

03:10 PM on 03/10/2011

And for that matter, should Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall's work with the primates (Mountain Gorillas and Chimps respectively) in the area be negated because they're well to do white women?

Regardless of what race or socio economic background a person is from, they need to be recognized for the efforts they're making.

[Mike Sprinkel]

02:50 PM on 03/01/2011

All due respect, but what exactly has this woman done to help the Congo? She's raised a lot of money - which is great - but to where does the money go? These are awesome questions that the article simply didn't address. It almost appears that the point of the article was to chastise Americans for caring about Iraq, but not the Congo.

[Maureen Evans Arthurs]

11:50 PM on 03/01/2011

She has done a LOT for the women in Congo.

The money raised has gone to Women For Women International (mentioned in the second paragraph). Look it up. They are an international organization that has on the ground support and rehabilitation for women in war torn areas such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Congo.

http://www.womenforwomen.org

The article did not come off to me as chastising but rather expanding ones horizons about other global issues besides Iraq.

[GlobalGramma]

03:33 PM on 03/04/2011

She has raised money supporting more than 14,000 severely war-traumatized women to rebuild their lives through Women for Women's year long sponsorship program. Those women have often said, "My child is alive because of you." ... but what they mean is because they were sponsored. Counting the children they have raised, that is 77,000 Congolese lives...real human beings, given meaningful support in surviving and healing, when the world and the Congolese government couldn't be bothered.