A cry for help!

Just saw a Boing-Boing post that is a follow-up to a NYT story last month about the rape epidemic in the Congo.

Jeffrey Gettleman, the East Africa bureau chief of the Times wrote of a world populated by perpetrators gone mad: "According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way." An accompanying slideshow and video brought the faces of their victims to life. At the center of the story was the Panzi Hospital of Bukavu, a not-for-profit hospital that treats many of the rape epidemic's victims, women who spend their days in bed "lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of all the internal damage.

Information on how to make financial donations and provide other forms of support to the Panzi hospital are detailed in a post by Susannah Breslin.