Pastor Prof. Dr. Denis Mukwege was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday, October 05, 2018 for his ongoing fight against rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For decades, Mukwege has been committed to helping victims of sexual violence. He repeatedly criticized the impunity for mass rape and the Congolese and other governments that do not sufficiently commit themselves to ending sexual violence against women as a strategy and weapon of war.
During the Congo wars, Pastor Prof. Dr. Denis Mukwege founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in 1999 with the support of CEPAC, the national Pentecostal church organization. Since then, thousands of victims of abuse and sexual assault have been operated and treated there. As Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health of the Université Evangélique en Afrique (UEA), he is responsible for the practical training of students at the Panzi Hospital.
With the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, the essential work of Pastor Prof. Dr. Denis Mukwege is honoured and disseminated. And the great commitment of the UEA, which has been a member of GPENreformation since 2014 and is constantly committed to peace in the Kivu region, also becomes visible in this way. GPENreformation is proud to be associated with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner through the UEA and congratulates Pastor Prof. Dr. Denis Mukwege – as well as Nadia Murad – on this well-deserved award.
At the same time we congratulate the UEA; it shows uniquely how Protestant educational institutions can become “Gardens of Peace” in which individual and collective growth, solidarity and charity are lived and shared. We would especially like to emphasize the GPENreformation Abassadors as well as the member schools in the Kivu region and in the bordering areas, which work daily and with all their heart for peace in the DR Congo, in Rwanda, in the region of the Great Lakes, in Africa and the whole world!
Your commitment – among other things within the framework of the “Partnership project between Protestant schools in the Great Lakes sub-region to promote peace culture and Protestant values within the framework of “schools500reformation” – leaves no room for doubt: Together we can become peacemakers and make the world a more peaceful place!
You can read about the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/press-release/
More information about Denis Mukwege can be found here: http://uea.ac.cd/Fr/prof-dr-denis-mukwege/