03 Jul City of Joy Graduation, From Survivor to Leader In a Time of Conflict
From Survivor to Leader in a Time of Conflict:
84 Women Graduate from the City of Joy
Photo: Carlos Schuler
It was with emotion that the City of Joy concluded our 27th training session in women’s leadership and emotional healing on 27 June. Since the opening of the City of Joy, a total of 2,322 young women have graduated, transforming their pain into power.
This session was especially significant because on 14 February, the city of Bukavu fell to the AFC/M23 rebel group. Tensions had been escalating since early January, and we took every precaution to keep the women safe, including a contingency plan for their secure evacuation. A series of safe houses were designated in the surrounding areas with adequate supplies of food, water, and medicine.
During the six-month session, the residents of the City of Joy were evacuated twice. Despite all the dangers and challenges, we continued our program with great courage and caution. We came by motorcycle or tricycle, we drove ordinary cars with tinted windows, and we even walked to work on foot on some days. How many times did we find lifeless bodies along the road or wait for the morning gunfire to stop before heading to work.
Photos: Carlos Schuler
Through it all, our 84 residents demonstrated extraordinary and unprecedented courage, showing great diligence in attending the training. They spent almost the entire session sequestered at the City of Joy, like during COVID-19, and did so without a single word of complaint. On the contrary, we remained resilient, and we all stayed. V-Day never abandoned us.
Taking the floor, the spokeswoman for the graduates explained the journey they had taken, mourning their trauma, dressing their wounds, braving fear and being reborn to revolutionize mentalities in their communities. She deplored the war raging in the east of the DRC, and above all its consequences for women and children who are its first victims.
The power that the 84 girls acquired during their stay in the City of Joy is an assurance that the future of the Congo is in the hands of women: women who know their rights and know how to demand them, women who commune with Mother Nature, women who are committed to redefining the norms of masculinity, women who recognize that peace is the key to development, women who love and own their bodies.
Photos: Carlos Schuler
The women who have turned into artists sent calls for change. They criticised the country’s mismanagement and they voiced women’s battle to bring peace to the DRC.
My sincere thanks to Mama V (formerly Eve Ensler) and the entire V-Day family, who continue to support us daily and encourage us to move the mountains of Kivu. Thanks to you, we have overcome everything and we are thriving.
Thank you to my V-Day Congo dream team who are more motivated than ever. You do us honor. Your love, your professionalism, and your humor comfort and encourage me every day. Together, we have defied all odds.
We did it.
— Christine Schuler Deschryver, Co-Founder and Director of the City of Joy
SHARE widely, LEARN more and SUPPORT women in Congo, visit cityofjoycongo.org and instagram.com/cityofjoycongo.