medica mondiale was founded in 1993 by Dr. Monika Hauser and its sphere of involvement expanded first of all to Kosovo, then to Afghanistan, and subsequently to numerous other countries. Today medica mondiale acts as a global advocate for women and girls who have experienced sexualised wartime violence in conflict zones. „There are things that women in Bosnia told me that I buried deep within myself, that I can’t talk about with anyone and wouldn’t want even a therapist to have to hear.” In her work she campaigns for the removal of the societal taboo that surrounds rape in wartime and makes use of various seminars to pass this message on to professional women in the affected areas.

The organisation describes its mission thus: “We are committed to working for and with women and girls all over the world who are affected by gender-specific, in particular sexualised, violence in wars and conflicts.” The standards developed for the trauma work are now applied all over the world. Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Liberia and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) are the conflict regions in which medica mondiale works.

For her initiative she has received numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel Prize, in 2008.