How to go
What: Run for Congo 5K
When: Saturday, March 31; race starts at 9 a.m., but there will be a Zumba warmup at 8:40 a.m.
Where: Wegerzyns Gardens MetroPark, 1301 E. Siebenthaler Ave., Dayton
Cost: $10 for students, $20 for adults before Friday. Registration the day of the event is $15 for students and $25 for adults. To register, log on to www.active.com/running/dayton-oh/project-congo-5k-2012
Information: www.project congo.org
Run or walk for your health and, at the same time, help bring health and hope to victims of the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Run for the Congo 5K March 31 at Wegerzyns Gardens MetroPark will raise awareness of the war and humanitarian crisis in the central African country.
The mission: To help the women being raped and tortured in the nation (it’s about the size of the United States) and the children who are witnessing this and being left behind.
In December 2008, Dr. Sylvia Esser-Gleason, an ER physician from Dayton, traveled to Don Bosco Ngangi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The center helps refugees, orphans and war victims in Goma in the North Kivu Province. Goma has been at the heart of the war that has devastated the Congo since 1994.
The suffering and need Esser-Gleason witnessed prompted her to found Project Congo, a charity to raise funds for life-saving medical equipment and supplies for Don Bosco Ngangi. She launched a website www.projectcongo.org, and it explains the situation and tells people how they can help.
Since 1994, more than 6 million people have died due to warfare, disease and starvation in the eastern Congo.
Violence and rape is epidemic.
According to the United Nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest incidence of rape in the world. Rape is used as weapon of war to disseminate terror, demoralize the population and disrupt society.
During Esser-Gleason’s annual trip this summer to the Congo, she will take along medical students and Wright State University students to literally illuminate a clinic and also focus on vaginal reconstruction for women who have been so brutally raped they experience bladder leakage, lose their ability to bear children and more.
Nasser Kashou, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Wright State University, will lead the installation of the solar project at St. Lukes Hospital in Uganda.
After the walk/run, there will be demonstrations of Congolese and Central African dance, music and art. The documentary, “The Crisis in the Congo,” also will be shown after the awards ceremony, and Esser- Gleason will talk about the crisis.
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