--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Denis Mukwege by Jill Biden: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f9b285508f129be/69888f840a4a2210d99c949c/time-100-2016-denis-mukwege.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 20, 2016 # Denis Mukwege by Jill Biden  Platon—Trunk Archive In the heart of Africa, after a lengthy journey along a sienna dirt road cut through mountainous jungle on the eastern side of the Democratic Republic of Congo, within sight of the border with Rwanda and one of the bloodiest tribal-civil wars ever known, we arrived at [Panzi Hospital](http://www.panzifoundation.org/ "undefined") in Bukavu. It was there that I first met Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecological surgeon and founder of the hospital. With a towering presence, a disarming smile and a soft, soothing voice, he is a source of strength and sanctuary in a land of violence and despair—a forgotten war. The son of a Pentecostal pastor, he is guided by the Hippocratic oath and an indomitable commitment to justice on his own mission to save these communities one woman at a time. What Dr. Mukwege and his team at Panzi Hospital do is extraordinary. Theirs is a reality where 48 women in the DRC are raped every hour, according to a 2011 report. They have treated more than 46,000 victims of sexual- and gender-based violence—6-year-olds and octogenarians alike. Beyond healer to these women and girls, Dr. Mukwege is hope. _Biden, a lifelong educator, is the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4298232/denis-mukwege-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4298232/denis-mukwege-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Denis Mukwege","datePublished":"2016-04-20T21:50:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:13:57.866Z","description":"Healing the survivors of wartime rape","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4298232/denis-mukwege-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f9b285508f129be/69888f840a4a2210d99c949c/time-100-2016-denis-mukwege.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f9b285508f129be/69888f840a4a2210d99c949c/time-100-2016-denis-mukwege.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4298232/denis-mukwege-2016-time-100/","name":"Denis Mukwege"}}]}] ```