Transformed by God’s Word: a group of young people
who were rescued from captivity as child soldiers

Providing comfort to the survivors of exploitation

Elim’s Be Free Initiative is providing vital support to rape victims, sex slaves and child soldiers in Congo

Elim churches have been at the forefront of life-transforming work among child soldiers and rape survivors in Eastern DR Congo through the Elim Be Free initiative, writes Callum Henderson.

Be Free is a powerful response from Elim to human exploitation, and Comfort International, one of Elim’s Global Missions Members, is working in the DRC with Be Free support to minister God’s love practically, emotionally and spiritually to the many people traumatised by the wars in the region.

North Kivu with its regional capital of Goma, in the east of the country, is an area of notorious violence, with conflicting armies displacing thousands, raping and pillaging villages and kidnapping boys and girls as child soldiers.

Comfort International is working with sister organisation Comfort Congo to support the rehabilitation of child soldiers who have escaped or been rescued.

Many children are kidnapped from school, others are driven by poverty and the allure of a life of looting to join one of the many armies in the area. Often the children are forced to watch their fathers being killed and their mothers raped before they are forced to carry their village’s loot to the rebel army’s base. Frequently beaten and abused they are fed drugs and alcohol to ‘empower’ them in battle.

Drastic repercussions

Attempts to escape are met with drastic repercussions. Innocent, one of the Comfort Congo project’s recent graduates, saw a school friend have his hand cut off for not killing another child who tried to escape, and was then forced himself to kill the child – one of his fellow pupils from school. Girls who are kidnapped are forced to loot and kill but also used as sex slaves. Children sometimes manage to escape in the confusion of battle and sometimes their release is negotiated through Comfort Congo. Jeanette* had gone from prostitution at the age of 13 into an army and a life of sex-slavery, but after being seriously injured in battle and taken to hospital she was rescued when government soldiers recognised the rebels. Rescued children are then referred to Comfort Congo’s child-soldier project called The Children of Liberty.

Useni* took cover during the confusion of a battle and hid in a local village before being referred by a ‘Comfort Congo agent’ to Comfort Congo’s Children of Liberty project. He says, “I hated the wrong things I did but now I feel happy living with Children of Liberty and serving God. I am now committed to live under the grace of God.”

Transforming love

The Children of Liberty project is a life- changing Christ centred programme, which provides schooling, food, accommodation and, probably most importantly of all, introduces the rescued soldiers to the transforming love and healing power of Jesus.

Isaac*, a project member says, “I became a Christian thanks to the teachings of God’s Word that they preached. That teaching helped me to know how to live in peace with other people.” Elim’s Be Free support has enabled the project, which is also funded through the sponsorship of the rescued children, to expand its support. New land has been bought and space is being made to increase the number of children on the project beyond the present 40. Some 30 children have already graduated from the programme and are living independently.

Beacon of hope

For women living in the area life is constantly overshadowed by the threat of rape, often by multiple men, and always brutal and life threatening. For these women the Comfort International funded Central Hospital of Rusayu (CHR) is a beacon of hope.

Rape survivors are faced with multiple challenges – personal injury, rejection by husbands and family and even society. Plus rape may often be accompanied by the looting of all their belongings if it occurs at home (although many take place when they are farming or collecting fire- wood or water). They also face the loss of ability to work, and no money to pay for treatment.

The CHR hospital provides free treatment for those who have no money, along with spiritual and emotional support through the trauma of the rape and the possibility of mutual support through the rape survivors’ fellowship. Some of those most badly affected may also be taken on by the Heshima (Swahili for dignity) project which links sponsors to rape survivors and supports their recovery through income generation activities.

Hugely grateful

Elim Churches have been supporting this work on a monthly basis through the Be Free initiative and those who have been helped are hugely grateful.

Antionette*, a survivor, was brought by ambulance to the hospital after being raped by multiple men in army uniforms and kept captive that way for a week. Her parents were already dead. She went to stay with an aunt but the aunt’s husband died in a cave-in at the mining town of Rubaya.

Antionette returned to the hospital to give birth to a baby conceived through the rape and says, “I do not know in which ways I can thank Comfort Congo that took me here and fed me all of this time I am here.

“Also I thank the donors of Comfort Congo for their love and kindness to us and the money they send to help our hospital. At the end I say thanks to the doctors and nurses for the way they took good care of me up till now and they gave clothes to my baby.”

The support of Elim churches has meant that all those women were able to find medical care and love and support. But they still need our prayers as they battle the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wounds of their trauma. With no end to the conflict and endemic rape present in the area the hospital, enabled by Be Free continues to function as a life-saving and life-transforming centre for those precious women.

* Names have been changed to protect identities

This article first appeared in the April 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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