They say that this video that was never meant to be public but they want to keep the link up. However, they do not acknowledge anywhere or on the youtube link that they shortened it. This is extremely disappointing as it makes them seem as if they are covering things up and not serious about addressing the issues I raise here.
I have notified them that I noticed and that I made a copy of the video before I published. Its the product of a lot of thinking and processing since the metoo hashtag appeared, re-triggering lots of toxic memories and suppressed emotions. This would be the perfect next step for me to build on my humanitarian advocacy work at Refugees International.
Bringing my advocacy experience to an operational powerhouse like MSF that believed in speaking out and temoinage was truly a dream job for me. I wrote about the failure of the government to consult with IDPS before forcibly moving them to new towns in Sudan. I felt like these things helped a bit. But my real passion was writing about gender issues and trying to support women who suffered in these humanitarian crises.
I have focused on these issues in my career ever since. On my first ever Refugees International field trip in , I met a female MSF Head of Mission in Liberia who told me about the trafficking of Ukrainian women into Liberia and started me on the path of learning about sexual exploitation and abuse. I met with MSF midwives and female humanitarian affairs officers uncovering the rapes in Darfur in They demanded that we do something and join them in speaking out.
So I wrote about that and met with policy makers globally demanding change, lobbying for greater pressure from the US government to allow raped women to receive medical care without a police report and to refer Bashir to the International Criminal Court. So I worked with my colleagues and a new Senator, Barack Obama, to sponsor a bill to place greater US attention to the Congo and the terrible way women were treated there.
