A Human Rights Plea

I sent out this plea quite some time ago, but the need is as urgent as ever. Please contact your nearest international women's rights group (or any women's rights group) or such organizations as Heal Africa, and call for action or find out how you can help. Or better yet, talk to all of the men in your life right now to find out how men can stop this violence. The torture happening to the women in the Congo is the same tortue that's happening to women in Darfur, Afghanistan, and right here in the U.S. Rape and tortue of women worldwide is an epidemic that can no longer be ignored. We are slowly destroying over half of the world's population with this oppression. It must stop now.

"Hello to my wonderful, compassionate, activist friends, family, and colleagues,

I normally don’t solicit for causes, but each and every day, with a massive lump in my throat, I read up on what is happening to women, girls, and baby girls throughout Africa (and the world, actually), and I just can’t take the pain of it, without taking action anymore. We are staring at one of the greatest humanitarian atrocities in the history of the human race – the brutal treatment of women all over the world, which is the only form of oppression that perpetually grinds on and on in every country, every single race, every culture, and every religion. It is the greatest and longest crime against humanity, 51% of it, in the world. It is the only form of oppression that is relentlessly practiced on a group of people who have been consistently and overwhelmingly non-violent since the dawn of humans. Today, the nightmares in the Congo and Darfur serve as examples of how deep hatred of women continues to play itself out in our world.

Please read the link below and donate to Heal Africa (one of the only organizations in the Congo who have specialists that can repair “fistula” for raped women and girls) or the myriad of other trusted organizations out there, if you can. Or if you want to help and are short on monetary resources, feel free to contact me and I can guide you through different options that are available. Not only do victims desperately need help recovering, the men who commit these crimes must be prosecuted. The more they get away with it, the more violent the crimes become (consider Congolese militiamen roasting baby girls on a spit after they’ve raped them). As the newsbyte indicates below, this is real. It is not a story. It is really happening. Think about that for a minute – let it in.

An earth shaking shift in gender ideology will also be required to forever put an end to these crimes (handing out machine guns to every woman and child so they can protect themselves might also work), but it must happen – things have been out of control and lives have been ruined for way too long…They say the most powerful force in the world, when put into action, is a unified American public opinion and the pressure it creates. So let’s make it happen.

Anderson Cooper: This is Not a Fairy Tale

Peace, Heidi Schnakenberg"