Sister Angélique Namaika’s Story, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Photo by UNHCR/B. Sokol/2013.
The 2013 winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award, Sister Angélique Namaika, works in one of the remotest regions of DR Congo where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge from brutal armed groups – including the Lord’s Resistance army (LRA). With the most meagre of resources – literally a bike and her two hands – Sister Angelique has helped more than 2000 women and girls who have survived horrific human rights abuses by the LRA.
“It’s incredible to imagine what these women have lived through, what atrocities they have suffered. They need to be brought together, to be loved, to be able to forget a little bit what they have lived through. Otherwise we will have a lot of broken women, a lot of traumatised women. And if a woman is traumatised, the whole society is traumatised, because it’s the women who give birth and the women who raise the whole community.”
