Breaking the Silence After War

Anny Modi was 17 years old when she made a promise she would carry for the rest of her life.

War had already stolen her childhood. She had seen neighbors shot and left in the street. She had fled past bodies no one came to bury. She had given birth to her daughter as gunfire cracked in the distance. And as she escaped the violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), she made a quiet vow: if I survive, I will become the voice of the voiceless.

She survived. And she kept that promise.

Today, Anny is a member of the Strategic Committee of the Réseau des Femmes Leaders de l’Afrique – African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), where she’s driving regional efforts to strengthen women’s leadership in peace and security. She played an active role in the Nairobi peace process, a regional initiative aimed at resolving the conflict in eastern DRC, ensuring that the priorities of Congolese women were not left out of negotiations shaping the country’s future.

Through the Rapid Response Window of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), Anny and two other women leaders were able to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, to participate in the third round of talks, known as Nairobi III.

Anny’s activism, however, was not born in conference rooms or policy debates. It was forged in war.

In the late 1990s, as waves of violence and instability swept across the DRC, she was still a teenager. The conflict did not end quickly — it became the backdrop of her adolescence, shaping her daily life with fear and uncertainty.

At just 17, she became a mother. And that changed everything.

I didn’t want my daughter to live what I had lived. I didn’t want her to grow up seeing her friends killed, seeing women raped, seeing silence forced on entire communities.

Like so many Congolese women, Anny transformed grief into resistance and determination. When her family sent her into exile in South Africa to keep her safe, she carried her promise with her.

For more than a decade as a refugee, she advocated relentlessly for women and girls left behind in conflict zones. When the DRC was labeled the “rape capital of the world,” she refused to let that headline define her country without demanding accountability and change. She worked not only for Congolese refugees, but also for others displaced in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Ten years later, with war still raging at home, she made another difficult decision: she returned.

I started this to create a better world for my daughter. So I had to go back and make sure the voices and the memories of my sisters were not lost.

Having worked for decades championing women’s role in peacebuilding, Anny knows the obstacles all too well: women often hear about opportunities too late to act, they lack timely training and funding, and they cannot travel safely in areas controlled by armed groups, especially in the eastern part of the country.

And yet, she remains steadfast: women are not just victims of conflict — they are essential architects of peace.

Women on the ground understand the socio-cultural dynamics of their communities. They have trust. They can reach young people, even those involved in armed groups. They are often the first responders to humanitarian crises and the last to abandon their communities.

We have the trust of the people around us. That is our strength.

As a member of WPHF’s Steering Committee in the DRC, Anny has seen firsthand what happens when funding reaches women and girls on the frontlines, in areas that are hard to access and deeply affected by violence.

Despite everything she has lived through, Anny refuses despair. She dreams of a Congo where children do not wake up to gunfire, where women and girls do not fear sexual violence, where peace agreements reflect what communities really want: safety, prosperity, and opportunities.

Looking back, she sometimes wishes she had realized sooner how powerful her voice could be. That’s why her message to young girls across the DRC is urgent and clear: don’t lose hope. There are voices rising for you — and one day, yours will rise too.

And to the world, she leaves a challenge.

Anny Modi speaking during the Global Women’s Forum for Peace and Humanitarian Action, held in Berlin, Germany, in May 2023. (Photo: Thomas Ecke)