It all started with a book. In December 1998 Belgian journalist Els De Temmerman heard of the abductions in Northern Uganda for the first time. At the time she was visiting the area to write articles for the Flemish newspaper "De Morgen". The size and gravity of the child abuse, as well as the fact that the world did not seem to notice the human catastrophy, made her decide to write a book.
‘Aboke Girls’ renders the story of the abduction of 139 schoolgirls from an Italian boarding school in Northern Uganda in October 1006. Sister Rachele, the vice-principal of the school, decided to follow the rebels with an almost superhuman courage. By offering her own life in return for the lives of her girls she managed to get 109 of her pupils released. Sadly enough, she had to leave thirty of them behind.
The book tells the story of a few girls that managed to escape from the rebels. It also describes sister Rachele’s numerous attempts to find the missing girls:a crusade that led her to a.o. Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, the Pope and the European Parliament. To this day, three Aboke girls are still missing and four girls are known to be killed
"Aboke Girls" has been translated into English, Italian, Spanish and French. All the proceeds of the book as well as of all Els De Temmerman’s lectures entirely go to the ex-childsoldiers’ schoolfee programme.
In the past few years more than ten thousand children have managed to escape from the Lord’s Resistance Army. Most of them escape during confrontations with the Ugandan army:often they get separated during fights or they get wounded in battle.
The children that return from the Lord’s Resistance Army are all in a terrible state. Many have shotwounds, some of them are badly mutilated: they are scarred and bruised, many have been stabbed and battered. Swollen and injured feet are commonplace. Most children are ill, undernourished and covered by scabies from head to toes. Malaria, tuberculosis, gastro-enteritis and breathing disorders are the most common diseases. All the girls return with venereal diseases, some of them with AIDS.
Less visible and harder to heal are the inner scars: the distrust, anxiety, selfcontempt, guilt, moral desperation and rage towards a society that could not protect them. Due to the fact that they could not go to school, they hardly have any chances on the labour market. Many of the girls come back with babies they cannot financially support. In their villages they are often called names, like "rebels" or "Kony's wives"
When they escape, the children often find refuge in one of the rehabilitation centres in Northern Uganda, like the one run by our organisation in Lira. For a limited number of weeks they get treatment: mediacal care, trauma therapy and psycholigical counselling. After this they have to go home. However, many are afraid to go home, because they expect retaliatory actions by the L.R.A. The rebels are known to regularly search for so-called deserters. When such a "deserter" is discovered his/her family and sometimes even the whole village is butchered.
If these children aren't offered any prospects for a better future, they may resort to criminal or pathological behaviour. Moreover, they may fall into the hands of organised crime or future war lords. Education is the best way to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into mainstream society. This is exactly why the NGO "Sponsoring Children Uganda" was established. Only recently the organisation has been renamed into Childsoldiers / Kindsoldaten vzw.
When we started, we financed the studies of just 25 ex-childsoldiers. Thanks to the many campaigns set up by schools, service clubs and other organisations and thanks to the donations of countless Belgian and Dutch citizens, we are presently financing the education of over 2000 ex-childsoldiers, and this mainly at secondary and vocational schools in Northern Uganda.
The most needy and traumatized children get into our programme first: children that were abducted for a long time (6 months or more), orphans, disabled children and girls with babies.
Each term/trimester schoolfees are paid direct to schools in Northern Uganda To secure a smooth follow-up some eighty schools have been carefully selected in Lira, Apac, Gulu en Kitgum districts. In selecting these schools, we have carefully considered whether the learning environment is suitable for our children: security,school standards, performance, accessibility, discipline, school facilities and above all, understanding for the specific situation of ex-childsoldiers. Every term/trimester the sponsored children have to show their school reports and the schools have to hand over an assessment report on each child.
The sponsoring programme is solely financed by private donations. The funds go direct to the schoolfees. The sponsoring programme is entirely run by volunteers, which eliminates staff costs. A report by the Belgian Treasury Department shows that in the years 2002 and 2003 respectively only 2.3 and 2.29 percent of our NGO's income was spent on administration and general overheads.
Our children get excellent school results. Some are the best of their class, or even of their school. We have managed to send five former childsoldiers to university, two of whom have already graduated. They study law, development studies, communication science and wildlife park management. Two of our sponsored girls were invited to address the UN Security Council. Presently (2005) we are sending already ten former childsoldiers to university.
The sponsoring programme boosts up the educational system in Northern Uganda. With the additional income it can improve its infrastructure and offer better pay for its teachers. As we are working with schools that have an excellent track record, a sound competion between the institutions develops, which in its turn leads to an overall improvement of educational standards in the region.