I come from a simple and humble family in the Oyam district of Northern Uganda. I am blessed to have a large family, and my parents, brothers and sisters are so loving. I am also a mother of two children who are currently pursuing education. I love them both very much.
I am the founder of Women in Action for Women (WAW), a founding member of the Leadership Council of the Global Survivor Network, the Principal of St Bakhita Vocational Training Centre and the Board Chair of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund.
Let me take you back to what started as a peaceful night in October of 1996 but ended in a nightmare.
I was 14 years old when I, along with other girls, was abducted from St. Mary’s Aboke school by the Lord’s Resistance Army. I spent the next eight years in captivity before finally escaping and returning home in 2004.
I will never forget that terrible night. The dark sky was filled with the bright and silent flames of heaven when, suddenly, I woke to the sound of shattering glass and the raised voices of strange men outside my dormitory. In an instant, I went from being an innocent schoolgirl to a captive held by a terrorist army.
In an instant, my dreams of becoming an engineer or an accountant vanished.
In an instant, I was ripped from my bed at gunpoint, beaten and forced into the ranks of the countless many known throughout the world as the physically and sexually exploited.
I will never forget the day I was forced to become a sex slave to a man many years my senior.
I will never forget the night I was raped, my virginity forcefully taken from me.
I will never forget the fear and the pain I endured while giving birth without medical attention.
I will never forget the day I was so badly caned that it took weeks for me to heal.
I will never forget the forced marches, where I watched hundreds die of thirst and hunger.
I will never forget how I almost died on one of those marches.
I saw the faces of those killed, their legs swollen and deformed. I prayed to God to join them in death.
