We ask that the world please hear us ... Women from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) share their stories of Survival

The stories to follow will be very distressing for many readers. They are a very small sample of the many that could have been used. All names and any details that would identify a woman or girl have been changed. All stories are used with the plea from the storyteller that they be shared as widely as possible:- The war in DRC is over and the first constitutional elections were held in December 2005 and presidential/parliamentary elections in July, 2006 (United Nations 2006). I (ED) was embarrassed that, as a midwifery academic and an Australian citizen, I knew so little about this war. Officially ' a war that had lasted 5 years and had killed 3.8 million people or about 7% of the population (Medecins Sans Frontieres 2006). Many hundreds of thousands more people, not attacked by warring parties died from hunger, disease and exposure (Human Rights Watch 2002). More people died in the war in DRC than in any other war since the 2nd World War, sixteen times more than in the Balkans conflict and more than three times than were killed in the Rwandan genocide (Braeckman 2004). The war is officially over but the strategic raping and torture of women and young girls is getting worse as the rebels grow in their desperation and sadistic ways. This paper has been written in response to the pleas of women and young girls who shared their stories and begged me to tell as many people as possible what is happening to them.