Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Feminists Around the World: Christine Schuler Deschryver

Transcript

Feminists Around the World: Christine Schuler Deschryver · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you direction by her radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And happy December everybody. We are in the middle of it,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I know. And today we are featuring an activist and
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: human rights advocate, Christine Schuler Describer for our activists around
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: the world or feminist around the world. You know how
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: we love to switch up the names or I do. Yes, yeah,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: we're gonna play put that on me. But yeah, so
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a Describer has been an activist for decades fighting for
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the rights and protection of women in her country. She
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: talks openly of her love and desire to better the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: lives of those from her home in the Democratic Republic
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of Congo, calling Kavu her home. She has worked hard
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: in establishing the City of Joy, a nonproper that seeks
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: to quote provide women with the opportunity to heal and
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: redirect themselves in a community on their own terms. And
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: this is according to their website Cityofjoycongo dot org and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Describer and the organization have been doing just that. Here's
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: some more information about the City of Joy. The City
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of Joy is a transformational leadership community for women survivors
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: of violence located in Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: or the DRC. Conceived, owned and run by the local Congolese,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: The City of Joy has flourished since it first opened
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: its doors in June twenty eleven, healing women from their
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: past trauma through therapy and life skills programming while providing
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: them with the essential ingredients needed to move forward in life,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: love and community. And they have worked to help the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: women thrive in their community. The site continues, saying since
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: opening its stores in twenty eleven, one and fifty eight
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: women have graduated from the City of Joy, held themselves,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: been nurtured, learned new skills, empowered themselves and joined into
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a network of love and revolution. These women have released
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: massive trauma and horrific memories. They have danced, sung, learned
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: their rights, perform plays, developed agricultural skills, and come to
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: love their bodies. They've become leaders in their communities. They're
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: no longer stigmatized for being raped. These women are forces
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: of energy and determination, entrepreneurs of small businesses, initiators of collectives,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: restaurant owners, farmers with new land, educators and advocates on
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: sexual violence, volunteers and self created recruiting networks for new
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: women at the center, journalists, immigration workers, tailors, students, herbalists,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and the list goes on. So Describer has been leading
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: this group to teach women to become survivors and advocate
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: for themselves as well as others. And she's dedicated her
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: life to this mission. After the rape and death of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: her best friend in nineteen ninety eight, she became a
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: fierce voice in protecting women and children against such horrendous violence.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: And this is all over the world world, not just
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: in the DRC. In a twenty twenty three TED talk,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Describer talks about her work and how the City of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Joy has pushed to bring safety to her community. Here's
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: what she had to say about the organization in this
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: TED talk. City of Joy is a physical place, but
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: is also a desire, a vision, a metaphor for turning
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: pain into power. And by power we mean care, compassion, community.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: And yeah, she continued in that Tech talk about the
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: hard work and guiding principles they used to make the
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: City of Joy successful. And we want to give a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: shout out to Goodgodgod dot Co, who gave us a
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: summary of the TED talk as well as played the
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: TED talk for us and kind of give you more
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: in depth information. And this is where we got some
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of this guidelines from. Where the guiding principles from. So
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: one they say is rebirth. A Descriver says that the
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: living principle of City of Joy is a belief that
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: there is no woman, no matter how hard or validated,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: broken or loss, who cannot be restored. The second principle
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the women, and they quote Describer emphasize that the City
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: of Joy succeeds because the women who run it actually
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: live and work in the community they serve. She says,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: the women of Congo envision the City of Joy, and
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: they're the ones who run it. Our sisters in the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: West help by providing resources and sharing our story by
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: being wings at our back. The third is the community,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: and she says at City of Joy, women come to
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: understand that their healing is intertwined with their sister's healing.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: The collective healing of women leads to radical political awakening.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: It teaches women how to lead by investing in the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: whole community. The fourth is the earth. She says, I
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: grew up with a deep love and respect for the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: earth and a vision for connecting the healing of women
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: with the healing of the earth. The farm is a
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: living classroom and we witness the profound healing of survivors
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: as they connect with and cherish the earth. And the
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: fifth is the arts. At the City of Joy, song, art, dance,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: creativity are vital to the survivor's recovery and further build
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a sense of community. Describer says dance is central to
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: healing as it allows women to feel the expanse of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: their power and energy, to begin to love their bodies,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: to move in community, to express their creativity, to share
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: community tribal dances, and remove cultural barriers. So yeah, these
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: guidelines and principles have made this program invaluable in the community.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Going back to their website, they state that their program
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: philosophy as this quote, the City of Joy is different
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: than other traditional ngeodirect service programs. It does not use
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a sponsorship model, and it does not view the women
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: it serves as individuals that need to be saved. Rather,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the City of Joy aims to provide women with the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: opportunity to heal and redirect themselves in a community on
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: their own terms. Our philosophy is grounded in the beliefs
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: that each woman is unique, valuable to her society, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: has a right to be treated with dignity, respect, love,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and compassion. Women are not broken victims. Rather, they are
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: survivors who've been through unjust gender traumas. Each woman is
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: capable of activating her own ability to recover, heal, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: be an empowered and transformational leader. Rebirth is possible. Yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: all of these amazing guidelines and principles really are something
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that Describeder talks and emphasizes when she talks on interviews
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: or when she is just having or when she's doing
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: ted talks or other panels, because she really believes that
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: true healing has to be obviously through the women themselves,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: as well as understanding that even though with all the
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: things that the DRC has gone through, and we've talked
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: about this repeatedly, about the different crisis that are going
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: through and the fact that there are conflicts within that community,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: that's not their only feature, that that's not who they
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: are as a whole, but that they are a powerful,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: loving community and that yes they have trauma, but more
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: so that they are able to work through that trauma
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: and become a survivors and become advocates for themselves and
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: their community. So she is really powerful when she talks
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: about how much she loves her country and what she's
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: trying to do to preserve who they are, truly who
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: they are. So if you have time, you should definitely
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: go check out her ted talk. Go look up their site,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the Cityofjoy dot org. They've got some amazing information and
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: ways to help as well.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, definitely go do that. Listeners h and another one
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that I'm sure we'll check back in in the future
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and feel cheese up too. Yes. In the meantime, if
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you would like to contact us, you can get emails
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: at Stuffie momsteph atiheartmedia dot com. You can find us
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: on Twitter and blue sky at Mom stuff Podcast, and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at stuff When I Ever Told You.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: We are on YouTube, we have a tea public store,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and we have a book you can get wherever you
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: get your books. Thanks, it's always to a super producer, Christen,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: your sexy producer my and urktributor Joey, Thank you and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Stefan Never Told You is production by
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio forre podcast from my heart Radia. You can
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: check out the heart Radio app Apple podcast or if
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows