The Long Road Home for Congolese Rape Victims

Niyonzima Joyeuse, 48, center, along with Furaha Olive, 17, left, rides in a jeep to her village in Rubaya, Masisi Territory, the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was returning home five months after her rape. Joyeuse and Olive stayed at a transit center in Goma along with 20 other victims of sexual violence before returning to their villages.

Joyeuse, 48, center, reunites with her husband on her return from the Hope in Action's transit center in Goma. Her husband, a farmer and an evangelist, said he had waited for his wife for five months while she was cared for at Goma's Keshero Hospital after her rape by a gunman.

Musabymana Nyirarukundo, 34, and her daughter, Pendeza Miriam, 8, were raped on two separate days back in February 2009. They were healed, and ready for the trip back to their village. Since the village was so far away, they stopped in Rubaya in Masisi Territory at her uncle's house first. She also has a son.

Musabymana Nyirarukundo, 34, and her daughter, Pendeza Miriam, 8, arrived at their uncle's house in Rubabaya. However, Nyirarukundo was worried about her future: she had no job and her husband had left after the rape and married another woman.According to NGO workers who help victims of sexual violence, the economic dilemma is the biggest problem for the re-integration of the victims.

Olive, 17, left, is joyously greeted by her older sisters, Lylianne, center, and Bauma Bora, right, who holds Furaha's baby, Licye Benedition, a product of her rape, when they arrived at home after a one-and-a-half-year hospitalization in Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo.