Meet Jenneth

Meet Jenneth, the young woman who is the face of SCIAF’s WEE BOX, BIG Change Campaign for Lent 2008.

Jenneth comes from northern Uganda where 20 years of fighting between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has devastated the population. During the LRA’s terror campaign thousands of children were abducted for recruitment as child soldiers.

Jenneth was one of them. At the age of 14, she was kidnapped on her way to school and forced to become a child soldier, innocently caught up in a conflict she only ever wished to escape. For five years Jenneth survived the savage regime of the LRA living in constant fear of her life. At 21 Jenneth was able to flee the bush and start a new life.

Rescued by a priest who had bravely entered LRA territory, Jenneth was taken to a centre for practical skills training, funded by SCIAF. Along with other girls who had been abducted, she was given counselling and the chance to learn how to support herself and provide for her two children. And, as the rebels had robbed of a proper education she chose to take a three year course in tailoring and now hopes to start her own business.

Thanks to your WEE Changes, today Jenneth is safe and looks forward to a brighter future for herself and her young boys Wulter and Gurfre. She says she doesn’t know what would have happened to her without the support she’s received from SCIAF.

Help others like Jenneth, order your WEE BOX at www.theweebox.org