Kitty's story

Kitty was out fetching firewood for her grandfather when she was kidnapped by a rebel soldier.

She was taken to a new village, imprisoned and forced to marry a man she didn't know. It wasn't long until Kitty became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Jason. 

Not long after Jason was born, a group of rival rebels stormed the village and the man Kitty married was killed.

Once this new gang of rebels had taken control of the village, they gathered all the women they could find and locked them in a building.

Around 50 of the women were pregnant. The rebels cut out their bellies - killing mother and unborn child without mercy.

Kitty, and several other women, managed to escape death, but they were still trapped in a nightmare of murder, pain, and suffering.

Before the rebels left the village they threw Kitty and her son into a deep pit, leaving them for dead.

Thankfully, Kitty was rescued by a UN peace-keeping agency. When she finally arrived home, a local man named Gareth befriended Kitty. Although she was a survivor of rape, he did not discriminate against her the way other men did. He stayed with Kitty even when his own family shunned him.

But after Kitty gave birth to another son, Gareth abandoned her. With no way to provide for her children, Kitty had to accept whatever work she could find, no matter how hard, and no matter how little it paid.

I suffered too much. I couldn’t refuse any job. My children couldn’t go to school. I had no money.

In 2015, Kitty joined a programme funded by SCIAF. She was given training in farming and the seeds and tools she needed to start growing food. This SCIAF programme is funded by generous donations from ordinary people across Scotland.  

Soon Kitty could feed her young family, and by selling her crops she's earned enough money to build a new life for herself.

Your donations can help more women like Kitty. SCIAF's programmes in the DR Congo provide vital medical care, legal aid, and trauma counselling to survivors of sexual violence so that they can rebuild their lives and start afresh.