Neha Wadekar:
Zahra also helps to connect survivors to medical care. Facilities in Adre are extremely limited. The nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, known by its front acronym, MSF, offers a range of services.
This is a mental health unit run by MSF. In these private rooms, psychologists and mental health experts support women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence in Sudan. The stories I’m hearing are horrifying and heartbreaking. Women and girls are being subjected to gang rape, sexual enslavement, and many of them have become pregnant as a result of rape.
As well as treating walk-in patients, MSF runs community outreach in the camp to make people aware of its services. Staff have to be particularly sensitive when mentioning sexual violence. Community stigma around rape and sexual assault leads to severe underreporting.
Zahra is working hard to support women here in Chad, while dealing with her own deep trauma and loss.
