Imagine having your homeland invaded by violent, lawless militias and living in fear of your own national army and police because going to them might mean being robbed, beaten or raped. This nightmare scenario is a reality in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose national conflict has claimed 5 million lives since 1996 and resulted in the rape and sexual mutilation of innumerable women. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Panzi Hospital Project representatives Drs. Julie and Michael Van Rooven are coming to the Newport Beach Central Library to educate some of the world’s most privileged people about the horrors that exist for the world’s least by presenting “Attacking the Epidemic of Gender-Based Violence in Central Africa.” Learn about the atrocities that take place just a plane ride away and what you can do to effect change in the troubled region.
Wed., March 18, 7 p.m., 2009
