The World Health Organization (WHO) paid $250 (about 230 euros) to at least 104 women victims of sexual abuse during the response to the Ebola epidemic, from 2018 to 2020, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Officially, no compensation was paid to the victims, but the Associated Press news agency had access to internal WHO documents and revealed on Tuesday that the organization wanted to indirectly help women allegedly victims of abuse by its employees, many of them. which ended up being condemned. pregnant.
In 2021, an independent investigation investigating reports of sexual abuse in Congo identified 21 local and international staff employed by the WHO among the alleged abusers. The victims were vulnerable women and girls, especially in precarious economic situations. The youngest was 13 years old.
The WHO publicly apologized and promised repercussions against the accused and their supervisors. It is now known that he also paid the victims.
According to the report signed by the WHO director of prevention and response to sexual exploitation, Gaya Gamhewage, consulted by the Associated Press, each victim received a lump sum of $250.
This is less than what some United Nations officials in the region are paid per day and will only cover four months’ average expenses in a country where many people survive on less than $2.15 a day.
This is a meager amount of money to support victims like the woman who, according to the WHO, gave birth to a baby with malformations that required special medical treatments, or 17 other women who had children as a result of abuse.
Furthermore, the money was not paid directly. To receive the amount allocated by the organization, the women had to complete a course that would allow them to start “income-generating activities.” In other words, it was not an assumed compensation.
Many abused women did not receive any support. Nearly a third of the victims were untraceable, according to internal documents, and at least a dozen refused the money.
Two women interviewed by Gaya Gamhewage in Congo said that what they wanted most was for “the perpetrators to be held accountable so they couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
The World Health Organization’s budget to prevent sexual abuse in Congo amounts to $1.5 million. More than half corresponds to the amount paid to UN employees, 12% goes to preventive activities and 35% to “victim support”, which includes legal aid, transportation costs and psychological support.
Source: TSF
