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SFVS works in support of women and children living in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo – an area devastated by civil war. During this conflict, paramilitary groups fighting throughout the region have routinely committed rape as a tactic of oppression. SFVS counselors typically work alone in very remote regions to provide individual victims and communities with medical and psycho-social support. The personal risk associated with the travel and isolation that is inherent with this job is extreme and several counselors have been brutally attacked and raped as a result of their activities. In one case a SFVS counselor was twice attacked by paramilitary groups. During the first incident her husband was murdered and three daughters were raped before the militants robbed her home. This same counselor was attacked later in the same year while assisting a woman who had been raped and hung to die. At the request of SFVS, Front Line supplied 45 mobile phones to enable counselors to communicate rapidly with colleagues and other activists working in the area.