Santa Rosa Junior College will participate in Congo Week III starting Oct. 17 to raise awareness about the violent rapes and murders happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

There were at least 303 violent rapes, 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men and three boys, a panel of independent experts stated in a report to the United Nations Security Council. Militias in DRC prey on Congolese civilians and enrich themselves with the countries gold, tin and coltan, a mineral used in making electronics.

SRJC’s Associated Students and the club Sisters From Different Misters sponsor Congo Week. Organizer Taylor Anderson-Stevenson looked into the violence after hearing about it while she was on the debate team and found that some 6 million people had been killed in the last 10 years. She started organizing to bring awareness to the “raping of women as a weapon of war.”

Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist in DRC, told the New York Times he cannot bear to listen to his patients’ stories anymore. Every day 10 new women and girls come to his hospital. Some have been attacked so brutally with bayonets and chunks of wood, their reproductive and digestive systems were destroyed beyond repair. “We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear: they are done to destroy women,” Mukwege said.

“Breaking the Silence: Congo Week” will kick off on Monday with a performance by Fua Dia Congo, a nonprofit performing arts company dedicated to the preservation, presentation and study of Central African culture. They use traditional music, dance, theater and other artistic interpretations to dispel myths that only murder, genocide and disease thrive in Congo.

There will be events like movies, discussion, food, petitions and a letter-writing workshop all week at SRJC.

Anderson-Stevenson said she and the Sisters From Different Misters will be working with SRJC’s Institutional Technology Group to promote responsible purchasing of technology. By not buying electronics from companies that buy coltan from the militias who brutally rape women, SRJC can do its part to not support the rape, she said.