Skip to footer

Care for Ukraine's wartime rape survivors

Russia’s use of rape as a weapon of war has spurred an army of Ukrainian experts to help heal those who suffered such trauma. Foreign donors are backing this compassionate outreach.

|
AP
Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, addresses members of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill July 20.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

One of Washington’s political enigmas is why Congress shows such strong bipartisan support for Ukrainians in their war against Russia. One reason was on display Wednesday when Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, spoke on Capitol Hill. She had been invited because, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, “many of us have heard horrific stories about the brutal treatment of women and girls by Russian forces.”

Ms. Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not disappoint. She highlighted the conflict’s harm to women and their daughters, example by example. “We are grateful, really grateful, that the United States stands with us in this fight for our shared values of human life and independence,” she said.

U.S. assistance to Ukraine is aimed partly at stopping Russian atrocities against civilians – including the systemic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in areas under Russian domination. “With each day, the war crimes mount,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken July 14. “Rape. Torture. Extrajudicial executions. Disappearances. Forced deportations. Attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, apartment buildings, grain silos, water and gas facilities.”

Yet international aid to Ukraine also supports care for rape survivors. For Natalia Karbowska, co-founder of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, sexual violence in this war is “the most hidden crime.”

The care is not so hidden. Telephone hotlines have been set up to provide assistance to victims. UNICEF has deployed mobile teams of trained counselors to support post-trauma recovery. Doctors Without Borders offers mental health consultations and psychotherapy. Most of all, Ukraine’s therapists and psychologists have volunteered their time and expertise to assist survivors of rape.

“During war, everyone has their own front, and this is ours,” one Ukrainian psychologist told The New Yorker.

Ukraine has “shown a strong desire to address the harms caused by conflict-related sexual violence,” says Esther Dingemans, executive director of the Global Survivors Fund.  Appreciation for that compassionate effort, as well as concerns about wartime rape itself, helps explain why so many countries are willing to assist Ukrainians.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Care for Ukraine's wartime rape survivors
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2022/0720/Care-for-Ukraine-s-wartime-rape-survivors
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe