Hope Quilts connects women quilters in the US with women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo who have suffered traumatic rape and extreme forms of physical and sexual violence to provide encouragement, comfort, and support.

Thousands of women suffer rape and genital mutilation each year as a tool of warfare in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are left with fistulas - openings between the vagina, rectum and bladder - that cause them to be shunned by their families and villages. These injuries are deliberate. They are so severe that they require numerous surgeries and protracted hospitalization in crowded wards. Yet, this provides their only hope.

Hope Quilts has partnered with Global Strategies for HIV Prevention to provide compassionate care for women, many of whom suffer from HIV infection.

Quilts are hand-delivered to the women who are hospitalized at HEAL Africa in Goma, Congo. The women receive the quilts after the fistulas are repaired surgically.  In what is often an emotional exchange, they take them home with them to their families and community. Quilters are able to see photographs of joy and hope as the connection of love and comfort is made. View Photos…