Goma Film Project, "LUMO"

Aired locally Sunday, October 7 on TPT2

and Monday, October 8 on TPT17

(From the online synopsis at www.gomafilmproject.org):

"The agonies of war torn Africa are deeply etched in the bodies of women. In eastern Congo, vying militias, armies and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror.

Recently engaged to a young man from her village, 20 year-old Lumo Sinai couldn’t wait to have children and start a family. But when she crossed paths with marauding soldiers who brutally attacked her, she was left with a fistula— a condition that has rendered her incontinent and threatens her ability to give birth in the future. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, Lumo found her way to the one place that may save her: a hospital for rape survivors set on the border with Rwanda.

Buoyed by the love of the hospital staff, and a formidable team of wise women known to all as “the Mamas,” Lumo and her friends keep the hope of one day resuming their former lives, thanks to an operation that can restore them fully to health."

That hospital was HEAL Africa, where the Congo nursing team from Crown worked this past summer.  If you would like to view the film, it is available on short-term loan at the Crown Library.