Author: Candice Knezevic

Matthew Smith of Bend, Oregon, for his exceptional video “Life Should Be Free,” which creatively shows the links between conflict minerals used in our cell phones and the war in Congo, the deadliest since World War II. As the winner of the Come Clean 4 Congo video contest, launched in May by Enough and YouTube, Smith and a friend will be VIPs at the Hollywood Film Festival in Los Angeles this fall ...

There are just hours left to vote for the best video in the Come Clean 4 Congo YouTube contest. Voting ends at midnight tonight, so vote now for one of three semi-finalists that our celebrity judges selected. All of the videos do an exceptional job of creatively addressing the links between the trade in conflict minerals that we support through our insatiable demand for electronics devices and the sexual violence that has made eastern Congo the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl ...

With less than a week left in the Come Clean 4 Congo video contest, it’s time to cast your vote and help decide who should win the grand prize and be flown to Los Angeles for the Hollywood Film Festival ...

These days, when you hear about the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, you typically hear about men perpetrating acts of violence, rape, and other atrocities. Rarely do we hear about Congo’s courageous men, who defend the rights of women and children and who work day in and day out to bring peace to their country. In the short time that I have been in eastern Congo, I have met many such courageous Congolese men, some who work with humanitarian aid organizations to ensure that the rights of the thousands of internally displaced Congolese are protected, and some who ...

Something incredible and inspiring happened during our visit to Buhimba, a camp for internally displaced persons located in the outskirts of Goma in North Kivu. When we arrived, we were led into a room and asked to sit down on a bench along the wall. Within minutes, dozens of women living in the camp, many of whom were carrying their babies, had filed in and sat on the benches along the wall. As the benches filled, women started sitting on the floor. Before we knew it, the room was completely full of women staring up at us intently. Then, a ...

Candice Knezevic, the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign manager, is currently traveling in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. On our first day in Goma, we met with Justine Masika Bihamba, who founded Synergie de Femmes pour les Victimes de Violences Sexuelles. Synergie advocates for women’s rights and an end to impunity, works to sensitize armed groups and local populations about the consequences of sexual violence, and coordinates a network of women’s activists throughout North Kivu who act as a first line of defense for women in rural villages who have been raped. I first met Justine over a year ...

Hopefully, you’ve already wished your mother a happy Mother’s Day and sent her flowers, chocolates, or your well wishes. Modern Mother’s Day is quite different, however, from its original conception. Over a century ago, it actually began in America as a day for peace inspired by the Civil War, originated by Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on mothers to come together and protest what she saw as the ...

Last weekend, I saw the movie “Yentl” for the first time. The RAISE Hope for Congo campaign was highlighted at the world launch of a new movie series, Films that Changed the World. The series, organized by Kat Kramer, celebrates the empowerment of women and kicked off with a private screening of the groundbreaking film, Yentl. A fitting film to begin with, Yentl was produced, directed, written by, and starred a woman – the legendary Barbra Streisand. Renowned songwriter and composer Marilyn Bergman told the crowd about the obstacles that Streisand, as a woman in the industry, had to overcome ...

I recently received a very moving email from “Roger,” a member of the Children’s Parliament based in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. I met Roger last summer when I traveled to eastern Congo and had the distinct opportunity to see the Children’s Parliament in action. The Children’s Parliament, comprised of children all under the age of 18, some of whom are former child soldiers, serves as a link between children and adults in Congo. These children advocate for the rights of children and for peace with a determination and maturity that blew me away. They represent a hopeful ...

Last weekend, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote an op-ed called “The Invisible War.” In it, he described the unspeakable and horrendous crimes of sexual violence being committed in eastern Congo, where rape is used as a weapon of war on a scale seen nowhere else in the world. Mr. Herbert’s piece ignited hundreds of comments, many of which ask the ubiquitous question, “What can I do?” Really, the question should be…what can’t you do? There are so many ways that you can be an advocate for the women of Congo. To make it a little easier to answer ...