About Dr. Mukwege

Dr. Denis Mukwege is the founder of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Dr. Mukwege specializes in treating women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence in the Congo's 12-year war. Many of these patients have been gang raped, and some subjected to assault from the inside out with bayonets, chunks of wood and even rifles.

Dr. Mukwege has evolved to become the world's leading expert on how to repair the internal physical damage caused by gang rape and brutal sexual violence that is characterizing the conflict in the Congo. Since the founding of the Panzi Hospital in 1999, Dr. Mukwege has treated 21,000 women, some of them more than once. Dr. Mukwege performs up to ten operations a day and often works 18 hours straight. His patients arrive at the hospital in a heartbreaking state -- sometimes naked, often bleeding and with fistulas that cause incontinence through their brutalized vaginas.

Dr. Mukwege is the son of a Pentecostal minister and his wife, and has eight brothers and sisters. His reason for studying medicine was that he wanted to heal the sick that his Minister father had prayed for his whole life. Though he studied gynecology in France, he returned home to Congo to treat women in Congo who had no access to regular medical care.

Dr. Mukwege is now recognized by leaders in international health and development for his pioneering work and dedication. In 2008 he received the Olof Palme Prize for his work to help women victims of rape and war crimes in the Congo. The Olof Palme award is given for outstanding achievement aimed at promoting peace, disarmament and combating racism and was created in memory of the popular Swedish prime minister. He also received the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2008 for his work protecting the rights and dignity of tens of thousand of Congolese women. The award was started in 1966 to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

Dr. Mukwege