Abductions by Joseph Kony’s rebel army have contributed to thousands of missing children throughout East and central Africa. This is a story of one still missing.
It was almost eight years ago when Hellen Lalam last saw her daughter, Dorine Ajok. The family was living in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, and Dorine had left in the early evening to go find firewood back in the village.
That day, rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) were in the area. They abducted a girl in the morning, and in the evening they found Dorine collecting firewood and took her along with some boys who were in the area. The boys were released a day later, and returned to the camp to tell Hellen what had happened.
Life was difficult in the IDP camps, and families relied on each other to survive with limited resources. Dorine had played a big role in supporting her mother to provide for the family.
“We would collect firewood together, but she never let me carry it because I am weak,” Hellen said. “When she came back from school, she helped me with digging [in the garden] and she worked so hard.”
A year later, the other girl who was abducted on the same day as Dorine returned home. She told Hellen that there had been an attack on the rebels in Sudan, bombs exploded, many people were separated and she never saw Dorine after that.
“I cried for two days,” Hellen remembered. “I don’t know if she is dead or alive.”
Asked if she has any hope that her daughter is still alive and may one day return, Hellen shakes her head.
“She has taken so long.”
Even though she finds it difficult to hold onto hope, Hellen admitted that there is still a small part of her that still wonders if her daughter is alive.
“As her mother, if she is still there, I would ask God to bring her back home,” she said. “If she is still alive, I would like to hear her voice on the radio so that my heart can rest.”
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