“I am happy to be back home and discover that the stories told to captives to discourage them from escaping were all lies.”
Alex was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in 2002 when he was just eleven years old. “Life in the bush was unbearable,” he said. “I was forced to do unspeakable things that I never thought I would ever do in my life.”
Alex, who escaped in February this year, says that for years he had nurtured thoughts of how he would go about escaping. He missed home dearly and yearned for freedom. However, he was also scared that he might get killed if recaptured by the LRA and was also not sure of the kind of reception he would receive from the community. Many LRA combatants are told that all defectors are killed.
“The LRA leaders always told us that nobody was waiting for us on the outside and that we would be killed as soon as we left the rebel camps or returned to Uganda,” Alex said. “I kept thinking of my family, childhood friends and my country,” he said. “I didn’t know whether my family was still alive or not, and I wanted to [know]. The strong desire to come back home gave me courage.”
Alex is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the World Vision Children of War Center in Gulu – a organization Invisible Children Uganda collaborates with that resettles former combatants in their communities.
Susan, the Program Manager at the center said that returnees will ideally stay for three months, after which they are assessed to see if they are ready to resettle. Then they make arrangements to reunite them with their families and immediate community. Those with health problems, like injuries or mental illness, are kept at the center until they fully recover.
While at the center, the former combatants are allowed access to their family members through visitations. The center also organizes preliminary visits to their families to enable them get the feel of returning there at some point. Therapy sessions range from individual counseling, to spiritual counseling, group counseling and art therapy.
Although most rehabilitation centers in Gulu had closed down, the recent wave of defections necessitated the reopening of World Vision’s center. Once former combatants are rehabilitated, reunited and resettled in their communities, Invisible Children Uganda’s Livelihood program enables them and their immediate community members to gain skills in savings and business management so that they will be able to establish themselves in the new community with a source of livelihood.
Paintings on the wall of the rehabilitation center depicting the experiences of abducted children.
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