This is one of the women you help [I’ve not shown the woman in this story to protect her privacy]

A Door of Promise

How you provided opportunity to an illiterate woman in DR Congo

Dear Family,

YOU CAN READ THIS—what a blessing we take for granted! But for millions, illiteracy is a high, impossible-to-scale wall without a door—a wall that keeps its victim isolated and ignorant.

This is the case for many—if not most—of the young women who become students at our Women of Wellness (WoW) vocational training center in DR Congo. For them, letters and words may as well be ancient hieroglyphics! But in 2019 you helped cut an opening in that impenetrable wall—a new door. And now our students are not only learning to sew, but they’re also walking through that new door via a much-needed literacy program!

As you know, God’s love and the message of the cross are at the core of everything, so these women who have been stigmatized by rape continue to have the opportunity to find healing in His Name.

Passy is one such survivor who has entered through our new “door.” Her mother died when she was only 8 years old, and she and her many siblings were scattered among family after her father married a woman who despised his children. After being raped, Passy married her abuser, as is all-too-common in Africa. After two terrible years he abandoned her and joined the military, leaving Passy and their small child in a very dangerous area of DR Congo. Due to the constant threat of rape from rogue soldiers, she moved to Goma, the country’s largest city, and struggled to survive by carrying heavy bags of charcoal and beans in the market.

After a while Passy was discovered by a WoW staff member who was shopping at this market. Soon she became enrolled as a student at the center. Passy learned how to sew, as well as how to read and write! She is grateful she can now measure her own fabric before she sews, a combination of her valuable new skills.

Passy in her literacy class

Literacy, Discipleship and Tailoring: 3 important doors that have now opened to a new life of hope for Passy and so many others. All because God is using you to touch hurting women through the Victims of Sexual Violence Ministry!

Thank you for your love and care!

Together for the “least of these,”

Patty Forney
Director, Victims of Sexual Violence Ministry