From Sondra Crosby, MD at PHR:

I consider myself a strong person. As a primary care physician, my specialty is treatment of refugees—often survivors of torture and violence. But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw on the Chad-Sudan border last November. I want to tell you about the women I met and their incredible stories of trauma and ultimately of hope. 

I joined a team of volunteer female researchers and physicians led by Physicians for Human Rights. We traveled to the Farchana Camp in the remote desert of Eastern Chad to interview and examine Darfuri women refugees. Ironically, atrocities by Sudan drove the women from their homes - not to a place of refuge - but to another place of terror, a place of deprivation, fear and ongoing sexual violence. 

As experts in scientific investigation of trauma, we documented the use of rape as a weapon of war in Darfur, the continuation of sexual violence in Chad and ongoing depression and despair. 

Now we have a rare medical study that can be used to help end impunity and generate more effective protection and support. We hope with your help our efforts will bring about justice for these women. No one can dare claim any longer that the situation is exaggerated or undocumented, or that violent sexual attacks were consensual. Now we have the truth. 

Many of these women were sharing their compelling stories for the first time. Their anguish has stayed with me. But so has their strength. They told their stories so that PHR could share them with the world. 

I encourage you to support the resilient but suffering women survivors of Darfur by reading the just-released report from PHR, Nowhere to Turn, at DarfuriWomen.org. The website has a place where you can send a message of solidarity and hope to our sisters from Darfur. They will know that their plight is not forgotten, and that we are campaigning to help them.