Denis Mukwege

Denis Mukwege English pronunciation: /ˈdɛnɪs mᵿkˈweɪɡiː/ (born 1 March 1955) is a Congolese gynecologist. He founded and works in Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been gang-raped by rebel forces. Mukwege has become the world's leading expert on how to repair the internal physical damage caused by gang rape.

Mukwege has treated thousands of women who were victims of gang wartime rape since the Second Congo War, some of them more than once, performing up to 10 surgeries a day during his 18-hour working days. He has described how his patients arrive at the hospital sometimes naked, usually in horrific condition. In 2014, Mukwege was awarded the European Union's Sakharov Prize and in 2013, he received his first of three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. On May 28, 2015, Dr. Mukwege was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Harvard University.

Early life

Denis Mukwege was the third of nine children born to a Pentecostal minister and his wife. He studied medicine because he wanted to heal the sick people for whom his father prayed, working at first in a rural hospital, then traveling to France to study gynecology at the University of Angers, after seeing the complications of childbirth experienced by women in the Congo who had no access to specialist healthcare.