Posted by Richard Oneka, Gulu Uganda
Overview:  There are over one million children in Uganda who are not going to school and the majority of these are in Northern Uganda as a result of the 23 years of conflict and high level of HIV/AIDS infection in the region. As many as 25% of  children in Northern Uganda have lost one or both of their parents and 9% of all children are total orphans.  12% of women age 30-40 are widows and this rate is twice the rate in other regions of Uganda. Recent statistics show that the drop out rate of children from schools in Northern Uganda is 37% compared to the national average of 13%.  Further, 80% of adult women in Northern Uganda have not completed primary school and only 9% of adult men completed secondary school, and drop out rate is 6% among children age 13 years. While the enrollment rates of children in secondary education continue to increase in other regions of the country, the rate in northern Uganda has decreased over the last 23 years due to the conflict. UNICEF estimated that over 36,000 children have been abducted and recruited as child soldiers. Many of the children who returned have not managed to join formal education and higher institutions of learning because they have either stayed in rebel captivity for many years or their parents can not afford to pay them in secondary schools. The low level of education in evidenced by only 54% literacy rate in Northern Uganda, poor performance in schools and high dropped out rates at 40% are major factors hindering poverty reduction and development in Northern Uganda.

The Children of Attiak!
The children in Attiak are the most affected by the two decades of armed conflicts. The most affected categories of children are the child mothers, orphans including HIV/AIDS orphaned children, former child soldiers, child headed families, and children living with AIDS. According to a report from UNOCHA 2002, about 73% of the population living in IDP Camps are children and women who are the most vulnerable in the community.

The 1995 massacre has had long impact on the children of Attiak as many orphaned left by the parents killed in the massacred did not get opportunities to access education and many  became child-parents without skills to earn living and thus are unable to adequately support their children in schools and afford health services.

HIV/AIDS has also devastated Northern Uganda including Attiak in the region. According to the recent report from the Ministry of Heath, HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Northern Uganda is 12%, which is twice the national prevalence rate. The epidemic has left hundreds of children orphaned in Attiak while many more are living with AIDS. Because parents living with AIDS are weak to engage in economically viable activities like farming, they are not able to adequately provide for the basic needs of their children and many orphaned children have dropped out of schools and engaged in child labour to earn living.

The grave living conditions in the IDP camps with high level of poverty among the population has created a situation where many parents and guardians are not able to meet the basic needs of their children in Attiak. These orphans and other vulnerable children are faced with the problems of lack of basic school requirements, lack of life skills and parental guidance, child labour, child headed families lack food and other basic non-food items, early pregnancy, poor health and malnourishment, hopelessness as they dropout of schools, child prostitution, poor housing and poor health care services.All these problems have impacted negatively on the survival, growth and development of the orphans and other vulnerable children in Attiak.

Caleb’s Hope has come in to save and improve on the quality of life of children of Attiak with a mission of Building a School for “The Children of Attiak”. The school is highly anticipated by the people of Attiak to provide “The Children of Attiak” with quality education and opportunities to accelerate their social interactions, creativity, thinking and cognitive learning process for mental and physical growth and development processes into adulthood.

On behalf of “The Children of Attiak”, I have the honor and pleasure to invite you to become a Friend to “The Children of Attiak” and Join us in making their Future Bright by Donating to Project Build!

Posted by Oneka Richard, Gulu Uganda
In times of war, children suffer incredible loss of childhood, treasures as significant attachment, love, trust, hope and moral development! The Ayolli story has all the horrifying hallmarks of a child soldier’s tale, an eight year old boy ripped from home, starved, terrorized and forced to fight.

 

Twice before, the rebels came; Ayolli (not real name) was too young and small, the rebels came to his village when he was 3 and again when he was 6, but took other children. Then, one morning in 1995, he was weeding his family’s cassava field when he was surrounded by the rebels. At 8 years, he was big enough: they beat him, tied his hands with his T-shirt and marched him into the bush. His attackers were about his own age, dressed in rags and odd pieces of camouflage, their hair in Rasta braids. They carried machetes, food and weapons. Ayolli was held in the jungle for a few days, and then marched into Sudan with a 30 kilograms load balanced on his third-grader’s head.

 

The commander’s told Ayolli that they were fighting to bring peace to Acholi-land and to stop people from breaking the Ten Commandments. “Initially, I believed in [Mr. Kony], but then I saw his soldiers killing.”  I then became confused, Said Ayolli.

 

As an initiation into the rebel group, Ayolli was beaten 50 strokes on the buttock and sadly for him, some of the abducted children like him were spunk with a hot “Panga” or knife as initiation in to the rebel group. “What happens is that, you stand and bend down with the head down looking and hands holding your toes. They then spunk your back with the hot knife four times” Said Ayolli.

 

Ayolli started to forget what home was like – the classes at the primary school, the long games of soccer with other boys. But still remembers that they took/abducted him from his father’s cassava field. “They cost me my education, the care of my parents and above all, the love from my friends.”

 

Inside Sudan, at 8 years, Ayolli was taken for military training and during the training, you are told all the parts of the gun, as it’s being dismantled and assembled. When they are done with all the illustrations and demonstrations, you are given the gun to dismantle and assemble while naming the parts as you fix back the parts. If you fail to master or recall any parts, your neck is ‘brushed’ with the rough cassava stem until blood comes from neck. If you yell or scream extremely high, you are killed. “When you are trained and have a gun, you are a soldier. The rebels don’t consider anybody as young” Said Ayolli.

 

If you are given a gun to carry and accidentally it falls down from your hands, you are suppose to stand still and straight and fall backside like the gun that felt from your hands without bending. If you don’t do it well, you are ordered to stretch your legs over the burning fire in between the legs and stand still without moving until you are ordered to get away. Sometimes you are ordered to carry the food direct from the fire in any case there is an attack by Uganda People Defense Forces (UPDF). Hot as it is, you have to carry and run with it. If you pour or drop it, you will be beaten 50 or more strokes.

 

“There was no sharing of ideas with the others, about coming to Uganda,” he said. “If you raised the idea, you were killed immediately. Everybody behaved as if they were staying there. But each one made their own plan of escape.” For five years, he saw no way out. The Sudanese People Liberation Army stood between him and home. Ayolli wants desperately to go home to be a little boy who plays soccer again, but he walks with military bearing and carries his LRA years in harsh lines of his face. “People may think badly of me when I go back, “he said, his ancient composure cracking. “But I was forced. I didn’t do these things because I wanted to.”But one day, his detachment was raided near Attiak, about 75 kilometers north of Gulu town, and his line of marchers was straggling. “I saw a chance to escape and ran,” he said.

 

Ayolli hid in the bush for three days, without eating or drinking water before local people tracked his footprints, got him and persuaded him to turn himself for home. He was afraid of the UPDF, who had been his enemy; the troops held him in Gulu barracks for some few days, asking him on LRA tactics and weapons and was finally taken to the Reception Center for rehabilitation; later re-united with his family and started seeing the new world after 5 years in captivity!

Posted by Oneka Richard, Gulu, Northern Uganda

Today, the People of Northern Uganda are enjoying the prevailing Peace after the two decades of war between the rebels of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda. This case study is to share with you how the LRA rebels treated abducted children and their life experiences with the LRA rebel while in the bush.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels abducted young children, raped young girls, looted civilians properties, burnt down houses, and indulged in wanton, gratuitous acts of cruelty before they kill their victims. Are these soldiers, the rapists and looters and murderers? They are children, almost all. Many are ten, eleven, twelve and fifteen years old, barely taller than the automatic weapons they hold along. About 80% of the LRA’s fighting troops were children between 9 – 17 years old. In the course of the war, between 1994 to 2006 over 7500 abducted young children conscripted in to child soldiers, involved in fighting and committed atrocities in Northern Uganda, escaped, rescued or captured in the battle fronts were brought to GUSCO Rehabilitation/Reception Center (situated in heart of Gulu town) established for rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration of former child soldiers with their families/communities in Northern Uganda.  

I have worked as a Social Worker at GUSCO Rehabilitation Center from 2005-2008 and got involved in the rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration of nearly five thousands (5000) former child soldiers in to normal life in the community in Northern Uganda. While at the Rehabilitation Center, the children recalls their life experiences with the LRA rebels in the bush and they do shared with Social Workers at the Center. Today, I am glad to share with you Molly Case Study-My life as a Child Soldier. This is a real and true experience in the life of Molly as a Child Soldier in Northern Uganda.

Molly Life as a Child Soldier
Molly (not real name) was 15 when the rebels took her as a fighter and sex slaves. When rebels came to our home, I was asleep, suddenly I heard a bung on the door and I knew this must be the rebel. Out of panic, I urinated on myself. As I was preparing to get out, I discovered some of the rebels were already in the house.

I was ordered to get out of the house and I did.

I was told to join the long line of the captives and I did.

I was forced to kill a child who tried to escape and I did.

I was ordered to cut the neck and carry the head in my hand while looking into the face and I did.

I was ordered to smear my face with the blood of the slain child and I did.

I was forced to eat food with my hands stained with blood of the dead child and I did.

I was then caned 250 strokes as punishment for my decision for refusing to become a wife to a rebel commander.

I was left with nothing to think for myself. The only option was to give in for everything.

Molly then 15 didn’t really know what sex was, “but I was taken there, “she said – to the bed of the commander. For the next three months, they marched towards Sudan, stopping regularly to take more children. “If you are really pretty, you will most likely be killed, because three, four commanders will fight over you and they will kill you to avoid competition and rivalry among them”.

Once in Sudan, they smeared her chest and face and back with oil in an initiation ceremony: “It gets you confused.” They brought a witch doctor who slashed her skin with a razor at the wrists and ankles, then filled the wounds with herbs to make her a killer. It definitely worked, she said, her face ferocious: “After one month in captivity, you feel like killing.”

When a woman from her own village was caught trying to escape, Molly took a knife and sliced her from neck to pubic bone. “The drugs they give you makes you loose your memory, and you don’t think about whether it’s a human being you are killing.

A year ago, her unit was caught in a Uganda People Defense Forces ambush, and scattered. Molly found herself near an Acholi village, where a woman was farming. “I had a feeling I wanted to kill that woman – I wanted to beat her with a club.” But she was caught and tied up by the villagers. A message was sent to her parents.

Molly thought that they would be angry that she did not escape, as her siblings did, but the family held a traditional ceremony: They had her stepped on an egg, whose yolk would bind what was broken; they slaughtered a goat and sprinkled its blood to represent the shedding of tears. Then they took her home. She learned that the rebel group that took her had later killed her brother 13, and burned all the village houses.

“When I first came, “she said, “The feeling of killing was so strong. I wanted to kill. After they did a second ceremony, the feeling went away. I had been staying alone because of the feeling of killing.”

A year ago, she had a child with a villager. He torments her, asking, “Do you want to kill me like you killed that woman?” That, she added ominously, hurts her “more and more.”  She doesn’t see how she can marry: “Men will keep hurting me, and it will remind me of my past.”

“All these I shall never ever forget in my lifetime history. It’s a bad and nasty experience for me and all the children who have undergone the same kind of treatments in the brutal hands of the Lord Resistance Army”

Imagine being a child soldier before the age of 18 years. What decision can you make when caught in crossfire? Where there is armed conflict, we children are engaged in serious battles but remain invisible. As a child soldier you are used to spy the enemy, send massages across and often get caught in exchange of fire. For, we are ‘small and ‘innocent’ ”Said Molly”

Up Next is My life as a Child Soldier: Part Two – Ayolli Case Study!