George with his brother, father and mother.
“I feel like I just got another baby. I am so excited and always want to know where he is, what he is doing, whether he has had something to eat. The feeling is just overwhelming.”
These are the words of Mary, the mother of a young man abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army 12 years ago but who escaped a few months ago and returned home.
In 2001, when George was only 15 years old, he was abducted along with 20 other boys and two girls when the LRA raided his village in Kitgum district at daybreak. He walked day and night, and after two years he was forced to become a soldier himself.
“I can remember the first time my mother came to visit me at the rehabilitation center [after escaping], I was so nervous and didn’t know what her reaction would be,” he said. “While in captivity we were often told that no one is waiting for us out there and that everyone hates us because of all the atrocities we committed.”
George says he is so happy to have taken that bold step together with his best friend and escaped from the LRA. “I had seen enough and I was tired. Worst still was the day Joseph Kony summoned members of our unit and ordered the shooting of our commander and one other soldier who were once very close to him.” He says he realized that he would be better off risking an escape than dying fighting for a cause he no longer understood.
Upon his escape in Obo, Central African Republic in April this year, George was flown back to Uganda in May and was able to go through the World Vision rehabilitation program funded by Invisible Children and finally reunite with his family.
“My stay at the rehabilitation center helped me a lot. Through counseling I accepted that what happened to me was not my fault and that I needed to focus more on the future than in the past,” George said.
George is so enthusiastic about his new life; he speaks of great plans to improve his source of livelihood. “I prayed to God to bring me back home, but I believe he helped me because I took that bold step. I am asking him now to help me in my struggle to start afresh and improve my livelihood, and I believe he will help me if I work hard.”
With the settlement package that he received and great support from his parents, George has acquired two goats, and is engaged in horticultural farming.
“I remember when some of our family member got fed up of the long wait and asked that we carry out funeral rites for my son, I decline, I could feel it in my heart that he was still alive and would one day come back home, ” Mary said with a broad smile on her face.
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