Sophie, Countess of Wessex has become the first member of the Royal Family to travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to Buckingham Palace, Sophie is using the historic trip to meet with survivors of sexual assault.
The trip was reportedly planned months ahead of the Queen’s passing last month (September).
She has been joined by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon. He’s the Prime Minister’s special representative for preventing sexual violence in conflict.
Royal fans have praised Sophie for her trip with one tweeting: “That’s amazing! Good for her.”
“Adore Sophie, she’s a real asset to the Royal Family,” added another commenter.
It’s not the first time the Countess has shown a passion for such a tough topic.
She has previously travelled to countries including Kosovo, Lebanon, South Sudan and Sierra Leone to meet survivors.
Last year, Sophie opened up about how emotional she finds the entire process during a London School of Economics webinar.
“To hear their stories, you know when you’ve got tears dripping off your chin, I mean you just, you can’t help but weep with them because they are so terrible, these stories,” she said.
“It really is heartbreaking and I’ve gone to some very dark places, you know, internally. But I’m not living it and therefore if they can survive, if they can put one foot in front of the other, then for goodness’ sake of course I can.”
Sophie met with TRIAL International, an organisation which offers legal support to survivors of conflict-related violence. The Countess of Wessex also met Théo Ngwabidje, Governor of South Kivu Province.
Countess of Wessex praised for her behaviour
Meanwhile, Sophie found herself in the limelight at the Queen’s funeral last month (September).
A guest at the ceremony labelled the Countess as “incredible”.
“The Countess of Wessex was incredible. I saw her putting her arm around three or four people,” lawyer Pranav Bhanot told People. “It felt like she was really the glue keeping everyone quite strong today.”
“From where I was I got the sense that… sometimes you have that one strong person in a family who’s kind of keeping everyone together. To me, it seemed like Sophie was that person today,” he added.
“It was something that really stood out because it seemed that she really was very strong.”
Meanwhile, when Sophie married Prince Edward in 1999 she became the first woman who worked and came from a middle-class background to join The Firm.
The Countess initially found it tough carrying out her royal duties.
“Certainly, I missed it, to begin with,” she said about giving up her career.
“Certainly, it took me a little while to find my feet. But I’ve met some incredible people during the time I’ve been doing royal duties. I’ve learned a huge amount about an awful lot and now I’ve got this new area [campaigning against war rape] which is enormously challenging and quite an emotional rollercoaster, but I find hugely rewarding.”
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