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Democratic Republic of the Congo
Esperance, 17, was walking to market
with her mother in 2003 when
she was abducted by an armed militia unit.
She was taken to a military encampment,
raped and assembled with 19 other
young women. |
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At dawn, as if in class, they were instructed in how their lives would change.
Every day, they would be awakened to wash, cook, and clean for their captors.
"We worked hard," she recalls. “It was to your advantage to work. If you were working, you got some rest. If you were not working, you were being raped.
Several months later, pregnant and critically ill, she was sent away to die by the soldiers. Some villagers found her and took her to a hospital where she received proper medical care. Somewhat restored, she gave birth to a son named Daniel.
Like many rape victims, she loves the child she knows is an innocent victim.
Yet his face is a constant reminder of the soldier who enslaved her.
With facial features different from her own background, Daniel, like many children born to raped mothers during this war, is treated as an outcast by many in her community.
Esperance whose name means "hope", lives again with her mother and the child and she has returned to school. "I want to focus my energy on my studies and nothing else," she says. "My aspiration is to become a nurse."
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