As we work tirelessly on our new #zeroLRA campaign to bring home every last abducted child soldier, woman, and fighter, we are happily sidetracked by exciting news.
Our dear friend Sister Angélique Namaika has received the 2013 Nansen Refugee Award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since 1954, this prestigious award has been given annually to an individual, group, or organization in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees, displaced, or stateless people.
Sister Angélique Namaika is a familiar sight on her bicycle, which she uses to visit the girls she helps in Dungu and nearby villages (Photo credit: UNHCR / B. Sokol)
Sister Angélique is a Congolese nun who works in the remote village of Dungu, DRC with survivors of displacement and abuse by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). She herself was displaced by the violence in 2009 and went on to be the founder of the Centre for Reintegration and Development which has helped transform the lives of more than 2,000 women and girls who have been forced from their homes and abused. Her one-on-one approach helps them recover from the trauma they’ve endured from abduction, forced labor, beatings, murder, and rape, and other human rights abuses.
“It takes a special kind of care to help them heal and to pick up the pieces of their lives. Sister Angélique does this by helping them learn a trade, start a small business or go back to school. Testimonies from these women show the remarkable effect she has had on helping turn around their lives, with many affectionately calling her ‘mother.'” – UNHCR
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Sister Angélique while she was with Invisible Children in Washington for the Congressional hearing on the LRA.
The announcement of the 2013 Nansen prize coincides with the release of a report entitled ‘A life of fear and flight’ about life for those displaced by LRA violence. Since 2008, an estimated 320,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes in northeast DRC. The report, produced by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and UNHCR, highlights why LRA violence has created such severe and long-lasting trauma for both the abductees and the hundreds of thousands of people still too afraid to return home.
A startling snippet from the report:
The scale of displacement by LRA activities and the complexity of the displacement situation are comparable to some of the world’s most complex current crises, including Syria and Colombia. Of the total population in the LRA affected areas of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan, 20% are currently internally displaced. This is comparable to the situation in Syria (around 25% of the population is internally displaced) and Colombia (around 11% of the population is internally displaced).
We are not the only ones who are over-the-moon proud of Sister Angelique — after she receives the Nansen Refugee Award and the Nansen Medal at a ceremony in Geneva on September 30, she will travel to Rome, where she will be received at the Vatican by Pope Francis on October 2.
We’re sending her our biggest heartfelt congratulations!
(You can IDMC + UNHCR’s ‘A life of fear and flight’ in full HERE)
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