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UGANDA:
“Today You Will Understand” – Women’s War Stories from Northern Uganda
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A woman
sits by the fireplace in her hut in Oromi camp in Kitgum District, northern |
NAIROBI, 18 July 2008 (IRIN) - IRIN is pleased to announce
the launch in Kampala of a booklet and accompanying audio CD entitled “Today
you will understand”based on the moving, personal stories of women and
girls affected by the war in northern Uganda between government forces and the
rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Download the PDF Version of 'Today you will Understand'
“Today you will understand” is a unique collection of 16 true stories related
via radio interviews conducted jointly by IRIN’s radio project in northern
Uganda and members of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers’ Association.
The women and girls tell of being raped, shot, disabled, displaced, abused and
enslaved,of witnessing their loved ones being killed in front of them, and being
burdened with the responsibility of raising their children alone in abject
poverty.
Rose describes being gang-raped by LRA rebels when she was pregnant and later
giving birth alone under a tree. She tied the baby’s umbilical cord using a
thread from her hair braids. “My heart got hardened on realizing that it was a
boy. I wanted to throw it away. But God touched my heart and I decided to just
carry it since the child was innocent. You cannot run away from what is yours.”
Transcribed from the audio testimonies, the women’s voices in this booklet come
through with the starkness and intimacy they carried in the original radio
interviews.
IRIN has worked in northern Uganda for the past year, seeking to provide
humanitarian information in support of the peace process to local communities
and at the same time to enable the voices of local people to be heard by as
wide an audience as possible.
FEMRITE coordinator Hilda Twongyeirwe, said: “Sharing and publishing these
stories is one way of raising awareness about the atrocities of war and making
the world reflect more closely on what happens in armed conflict.”
IRIN Radio’s work in Uganda has been funded by the German government. In a
foreword to “Today you will understand,” Germany’s Ambassador to Kampala,
Reinhard Buchholz, writes: “Broadcasting people’s war experiences is one of the
best ways to bring attention to the conflict. It shows us how difficult life is
without peace and it makes the victims feel that they are not alone in their
worries. The project strengthens solidarity among the Ugandan people and helps
spread knowledge about the conflict in northern Uganda. I particularly
appreciate that it expresses the engagement of Ugandans from Kampala with
Ugandans in the North.”