UGANDA. Amuria. 2008“The rebels (LRA) took me at night. I was sixteen when they came. They came into the house when they were attacking the village, it was chaos. When I was with them they were moving all the time, to escape capture and to find other children. We had to carry sugar and salt, very heavy things that they looted. The boys were taken to be soldiers, the girls to carry things and be ‘wives’. Some of the strong girls fought, the rest just carried and were wives. I escaped during the time of fighting. The soldiers attacked and the rebels took off and left us. We raised our hands to show that we weren’t rebels. We felt so good on that day. It was a real relief.” Jessica doesn’t live with her family anymore as she is too afraid to go back to her town of Machoa. “I miss them. I see them on holidays. When I was rescued I went to Katakwi first and then I came here.”
Jessica Aloket, 20