PANZI FOUNDATION

The Panzi Foundation has a broad portfolio of programs and projects that are driven by three major underlying
themes: providing care, expanding access to care, and ending rape as a weapon of war.

A. To provide compassionate, evidence-based and survivor centered care to survivors of sexual violence and
other vulnerable populations (e.g., maternal-child health) in conflict.

Programs/projects that have been established to accomplish this goal include:
• Providing physical care and medical treatment, particularly in cases of complex gynecological
complications, including fistulas and organ prolapse. This includes physician training programs to
increase provider capacity.
• Providing psychosocial support, child-care, and therapy programs at our “Maison Dorcas” after-
care and community center and other facilities.
• Training and educating survivors on entrepreneurship and life-skills necessary to reintegrate into
society (i.e., income-generating skills training, mutual solidarity groups)
• Mass sensitization campaigns to educate communities on sexual violence and reproductive health
and the importance of men’s engagement in this issue
• Providing legal support and representation to empower survivors to pursue justice
• Proactive programs to respond to emergent crises, including malnutrition and mass rapes.

B. To expand services to underserved communities across the DRC and internationally.
Ongoing armed conflict and an increasing number of survivors that require a broad continuum of care has
created an urgent need and demand for replication of the Panzi Model and One Stop Centers that provide
holistic care to additional, more rural geographical areas. The expansion of One Stop Centers to improve
access to holistic care and reproductive health services for the most vulnerable women and girls in DRC and
other regions of armed conflicts around the globe is a key goal for the future of Panzi.

C. To end the use of rape as a weapon of war.
This is the ultimate mission of Dr. Mukwege and Panzi Foundation. Programs/projects that have been
established to accomplish this goal include:
• Combatting the root drivers of sexual and gender-based violence via both local and international
advocacy and prevention efforts
• Mass sensitization campaigns targeted at high-violence areas via mobile clinics, radio campaigns,
education campaigns (e.g., positive masculinity and consent)
• Increasing capacity and visibility of women’s leadership in the country and in individual
communities (i.e., women’s empowerment programs)
• Peace-building initiatives to end chronic conflict as a root driver of sexual violence
• Tireless advocacy in the DRC, on the African continent, and in global forums to bring attention to
and inspire action against sexual violence in conflict, and its root cause

Panzi’s projects and programs are all designed with long-term impact and sustainability at the forefront.

Panzi’sholistic, four-pillared model ensures that care for survivors does not stop once the physical consequences of sexual violence have been addressed. Instead, survivors are given access to multiple avenues of care that allow
them to fully rebuild their lives. Through Panzi’s holistic approach, survivors can seek justice, access ongoing
psychosocial support, education for their children, and socioeconomic support and training (e.g., job-skills and
trades training, financial and digital literacy training, creation of mutual solidarity groups for lasting community
and support, etc.). These programs promote the creation of foundations required for long-term livelihood
support for vulnerable survivors of sexual violence.
One Stop Centers are highly adaptable to local conditions and operate with a survivor-centered focus to ensure
that the care is relevant to the population it serves. For example, despite its initial purpose of addressing
conflict-related sexual violence, the Panzi team recognized the vast unmet need in their community for services
to treat other types of gender-based violence (e.g., intimate partner violence and harmful traditional practices)
and incorporated those needs into the One-Stop Model. Furthermore, One Stop Centers at Panzi are integrated
into existing health structures to avoid isolating survivors, thereby reducing the risk of stigmatization. The
integration of One Stop Centers into pre-existing health care systems also helps ensure sustainability of the
program post-conflict.
Finally, the inclusion of an advocacy agenda to Panzi’s programmatic approach ensures the potential for lasting
impact by promoting underlying behavior change and policy reform.

Briefly, our upcoming five-year, which will cover the period from January
1st, 2022 to December 31, 2026. plan includes continued assistance for survivors of sexual violence using the
holistic model that includes the 4 pillars of holistic healing (medical, psychosocial, socioeconomic, legal). Given
the positive results achieved with this model so far, we plan to replicate it across the DRC and outside of the
DRC to bring care closer to other survivors and communities in need.
We will continue to organize mobile clinics for remote and isolated rural areas. We plan to continue organizing training and capacity building sessions for health care providers from other health facilities to assist survivors in areas where Panzi cannot reach. In this context, we plan to build a large training center in Bukavu for the holistic care of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. All this work will be done with a survivor-centered approach.
We also plan to set up a training program for young university graduates called "Panzi Foundation Academy"
where the best finalists from universities will be enrolled for training on the vision and values of the Panzi
Foundation and its founder, Dr. Denis Mukwege. These young students will be trained in the Panzi Foundation's 4-pillared model of holistic care, as well as in humanitarian principles that will prepare them for advocacy in their professional life. Furthermore, this program will allow the Panzi Foundation access to a pool of human resources to which we can resort in case of vacancies, especially in the context of expansion and replication of its model.
This important work will only be sustainable if we also strengthen prevention efforts and the advocacy fight
against sexual and gender-based violence. In collaboration with these community leadership groups, we
will carry out important advocacy work and strengthen access to justice for survivors and the fight against
impunity for perpetrators. There will be no lasting peace or eradication of violence against women and girls
without justice; therefore, transitional justice mechanisms must be put in place and strengthened.
Our future plans also include strengthening the One Stop Centers and social centers that are already
operational in South Kivu. We will focus on sustainability of current programs and achievements and rethink our
approach to socioeconomic reintegration to improve long-term impact in the lives of beneficiaries and their
communities. We plan to continue developing innovative and transformative approaches to healing, including
innovative therapies (i.e., music therapy), and sustainable income generating activities for survivors (i.e., jewelry
making, solar mechanics, etc.).