The Women's Organization of Rebirth Through Healing, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising international awareness surrounding sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The founder of W.O.R.T.H. is Aria Maddox. The President of W.O.R.T.H. is Joy Plaza.
MANDATE
The Women's Organization of Rebirth Through Healing (W.O.R.T.H.) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising international awareness around sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. W.O.R.T.H. is an advocacy organization that recognizes the dire need to address human rights violations against women and children worldwide. Because of its violent colonial history and the little global attention it's received, our focus is addressing violence against women and children in the DR Congo; specifically sexual violence. The scale of sexual violence and the systematic nature and brutality of violent rape in the Congo is unlike any other circumstance in the world. This is not just soldiers raping women out of boredom or sexual pleasure. This is a way to ensure that these communities accept and fear the power and authority of that particular armed group. Rape is used as a weapon of war against women as old as seventy-five and children as young as three.
GOAL
At a grassroots level, W.O.R.T.H. is building partnerships with key organizations in the DRC to address what is needed on the ground. W.O.R.T.H. has, and continues to raise money for Panzi Hospital in the DRC. Panzi Hospital is the primary women's hospital in South Kivu that specializes in treating traumatic fistula; in fact, it is the only hospital in South Kivu performing fistula repair operations. Each year, more than 3500 women come to the hospital in need of counseling or surgical treatment. One of W.O.R.T.H.'s most exciting endeavors is the transition house we will be building in the future, as a collaborative venture with Congolese counselors, nurses, homecare workers, etc. This transition house will serve as a safe space to work, learn, teach and grow amongst other women affected by sexual violence in the Congo. At a community level, W.O.R.T.H. seeks to organize communities through education initiatives, including awareness raising campaigns and fundraisers organized by students on campuses across North America. At a global level, W.O.R.T.H. is dedicated to putting pressure on world leaders through the building up of collectives. These initiatives will be aimed at ensuring that voices are heard and faces are seen. We intend on reaching out to Congress in the US; to Parliament in Canada; and to global leaders and activists around the world to ensure that violence against women worldwide is on every agenda and made a key priority. Our goal is to reach out to the international community and ensure that we are no longer the guilty bystanders turning a blind eye to the deadliest war since World War II.
PURPOSE
W.O.R.T.H.'s mission is to educate individuals and mobilize communities. Through powerful initiatives, large and small, our purpose is to put pressure on world leaders who uphold and maintain a system of violence against women by allowing it to persist un-addressed. The Women's Organization of Rebirth Through Healing seeks to connect and unite individuals worldwide, who share in our commitment to end violence against women. Our organization seeks to address and raise international awareness surrounding issues such as HIV/AIDS, sexual violence, displacement, personal safety, access to health care, food and shelter, detention, gender discrimination, armed conflict over the control of natural resources, and the exploitation of these resources under extremely dangerous work conditions for Congolese women, men and children.
The 1st Annual W.O.R.T.H. Benefit was held on March 8, 2008 (International Women's Day) in New York City. The bill included spoken word legend Patricia Smith, and world-renowned artist Ursula Rucker, among other talented artists/ activists who are dedicated to using their craft to shed light on human rights and social justice issues. The Benefit was tapped as an opportunity to showcase art in all its forms, and to use art as a platform to raise awareness around sexual violence in the Congo.
The 2nd Annual W.O.R.T.H. Benefit will take place in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2009.
Famous quotes containing the words women, organization, rebirth and/or healing:
“When women reach the age of maturity, Mother Nature sometimes overworks their frustration to the point of irrationalism. Like the middle-aged man...who finds himself looking longingly at a girl in her early twenties.”
—Mark Hanna. Nathan Hertz. Dr. Von Loeb (Otto Waldis)
“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“[Film noir] experiences periodic rebirth and rediscovery. Whenever we have any moment of deep societal rift or disruption in America, one of the ways we can express it is through the ideas and behavior in film noir.”
—John Briley (b. 1925)
“When pain of the world surrounds us with darkness and despair,
When searching just confounds us with false hopes ev’rywhere,
When lives are starved for meaning and destiny is bare,
We are called to follow Jesus and let God’s healing flow through us.”
—Jim Strathdee (20th century)