From the first time you step into eastern Congo , you find yourself surrounded by the exotic and extraordinary , be it flora and fauna or the just plain incongruous -- the severed wing of a Russian aircraft stored on the side of the road , or a boy with a gun . The place is pulsating with the heat and energy of a population of people fighting to survive just one more day . But the violence here is as intense as this intoxicating , heady mix of Africa at its best and worst . Eastern Congo has been called the `` rape capital of the world '' by U.N. Special Representative Margot Wallstrom . Reports record that 48 women are raped every hour . I have been working in the region for 10 years and have seen a tragic development in this unpunished crime against the heart of society . I first went to a town called Shabunda , deep in the forest . It was October 2001 and circumstances brought me to Congo rather than Afghanistan . A small twin-engined plane was the only way in . And out . It was the height of the war and I was with a returning team from the medical NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres ( MSF ) . They had pulled out because of the regular attacks on the town , but had decided it was safe to bring their team of three back : there was such a need for medical help here . As the plane taxied its way precariously down the grass airstrip , we knew we were waving goodbye to the only escape route we had . I was there for a week . A week hearing terrifying stories of torture and rape . Multiple rapes . Violent , brutal rape . Rape with sticks and guns , even bayonets . Women told me of their daily choice -- to stay at home and face starvation . Or , go out to the fields for food and be raped . Most women chose the latter . It had become the norm . The war continued until 2003 , when a peace treaty was signed . Officially , the fighting came to an end , but it did n't stop . Nor did the rape . I returned to Shabunda in 2005 to find the women I had interviewed and photograph four years earlier . It was an unsettling search , for most of those women had died or disappeared in the forest after an attack , never to be seen again . The new women I met had similar tales of horror . But there was a twist . The people I spoke to this time related organized rape camps , with daily roll-calls . There was a new efficiency in the rape , it had become an integrated part of the rebel forces lives . As these women told me , it was now systematic . Some years later , in 2009 , I returned to make a film about rape and found a disturbing new trend . Women told me how they expected to be raped . Not once but many times . The women I met , spoke of gang rapes , three or four times . Sometimes it was `` only '' two soldiers , more often gangs of men,10 , 20 , over and over again . Many had conceived children and the girl children , some just babies only a few months old , were being raped as well . Rape has now become generational . In Panzi hospital , Bukavu , Dr. Mukwege , a general surgeon continues to work tirelessly to repair these damaged women . I met one of his patients . She was a cheerful little girl , it was impossible not to be drawn to her smile . The nurse saw me playing with her said : `` You know she 's HIV-positive . '' She was just three years old . Her twin sister had been killed when she and her mother had been raped . This little girl had been conceived from rape . It makes difficult reading , but not nearly as difficult as it is for the women survivors , who are living with the consequences and stigma of rape . Not least one particular woman , Masika Katsuva . She 's tiny , barely five foot tall but is a giant of a personality . Her story has inspired many of us , it is so bleak but also hopeful because she 's providing an answer to these women . The African beauty empowering women . Like so many women survivors , she too was rejected when she and her two teenage daughters were raped by militia men . Her husband was murdered in front of her , chopped up and she was forced to eat his private parts . Her two daughters Rachel and Yvette were 15 and 13 years old , and both of them conceived children . Masika 's husband 's family rejected them and she brought her daughters and their babies to a market town hugging the shore of Lake Kivu to try and rebuild their lives . This year I made a film about her and her work . She 's taking care of 170 women at the moment , they call her Mama Masika . Over the past 10 years she 's helped more than 6,000 victims of rape , providing them with a wide range of care -- practical , medical and psychological . She has created a community in an area that is not regularly attacked , providing support to anyone who wants it , and she uses a farm to bring them together . That field is their hope , their therapy and their source of food and income . They come to this refuge as victims , punished by the violation of rape , blamed and rejected by their families and the local community . Masika has become a mother figure to the women and their children -- the results of rape -- and as they plant , tend , harvest and finally sell their crops they begin to heal together . Masika tries to dream of a better future , but she 's also realistic . She wants her women to be able to stop doing manual labor in the fields and learn skills like sewing . But for that to happen , she believes , the fighting and the rape must stop . She looks me in the eye , and with a sigh , says : `` But I do n't see either the rape or the fighting ending today . ''
The city has been called the ` ` rape capital of the world '' Writer has a disturbing trend of generational violence . Dr. Mukwege , a general surgeon , works tirelessly to repair women damaged by rape .