The tally of those who have lost a family member, been displaced, or been abducted as a result of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues to grow decades after the conflict began. In northern Uganda, seven years after the LRA moved into central Africa and South Sudan, it’s difficult to find anyone who has not been affected by the conflict in some way. But there are also those stand-out stories of people who have survived, all the more determined to pursue their dreams and succeed despite the setbacks.
Like Odich Calvin, the seventh-born in a family of ten children who was abducted along with his older brother in 2002. That was the year Calvin turned 11. He remembered that they used to sleep in the bush at night to avoid being found by the LRA in their home. On the night he was abducted, it had been raining heavily and there was no dry place for them to stay. They decided to risk sleeping at the house.
“And that night they came and abducted us,” Calvin said.
Calvin said that he and his brother were placed in separate groups. They would see each other at gatherings, but were too afraid to speak to each other.
“If they saw you talking they would say ‘you, you are planning to escape,’ so we could not,” Calvin said. “But for him he was very lucky, it just took him 6 months and he could escape.”
For Calvin, it was two years before he took his chances and escaped.
“Walking long distances, problems with hunger, when the UPDF came shooting. You had to protect your life,” said Calvin. He was with the LRA in Sudan at the time, and the living conditions were extreme. “You couldn’t find water for drinking, so I could not stay in such life. I decided to come back.”
Calvin walked for three days before reaching an IDP camp in Uganda. At midday he would hide, waiting for the sun to lower so he could tell which direction to go.
When he arrived home, he spent one month in a rehabilitation center where he was encouraged to continue his studies.
“I want to go back to school,” he said. They agreed to provide him with a scholarship.
Calvin excelled in the sciences, and was able to get scholarships that carried him through secondary school. Unfortunately, the organization sponsoring him could not provide him with funding for university. Fortunately, Calvin heard about Invisible Children and applied for the Legacy Scholarship Program. In 2012 he was admitted into the program to study environmental engineering at Kyambogo University in Kampala.
It’s a four-year course, and in 2016 Calvin will be the first in his family to graduate from university.
“My family is very proud,” Calvin said. “I believe I’m going to get something very good after I graduate.”
He said he hopes that he can be an inspiration to his home community as well.
“After making a completion of study I’ll also look backward, so that I can raise those who have not gone to school. Even giving advice to my friends so they can also reach the stage I have.”
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