The Collateral Of War

"My childhood ended the day our family was attacked by SPLA soldiers, looting for food, and they shot and killed my uncle as he tried to protect us, my two older brothers and younger sister.

"We fled into the bush and for the next seven years we lived in squalor never knowing when the SPLA would come demanding food and anything they could take and sell for money. They would come at anytime and if we didn’t have food that they could take they would get angry and kill indiscriminately. They made us very afraid. They would also take all of our clothes, if we were unlucky enough not to be wearing pants, as few of us had underwear, we would be left totally naked. They stripped everyone regardless of age.

"We had no blankets or beds so at night we felt the cold and had to sleep on the ground close to the fire. We lived with about one hundred other families and life went on but we lived in fear.

"Amongst the adults where teachers who tried to run a small school for the children but the SPLA harassed them and frequently kidnapped them to carry their loads.

"Three years after we fled into the bush my father was killed, we don’t know why but he was poisoned and died. Later my two small cousins born to my older brother both died of malaria. We had no medicines or access to any clinic and when my father died I had to leave school; I didn’t want to but I needed to start helping to support my family. I left school only knowing my alphabet a.b.c.d…. and being able to count to one hundred, but nothing else.

"I made local beer with my mother which we sold to get a little money. We struggled without my father and uncle.

"In 1998, seven years after fleeing we where able, finally, to come back and rebuild our village of Loka and life got easier as we could now get soap to wash with and salt for our food.

"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement hadn’t yet been signed but we where left alone and where able to get on with our lives. In 1999 I got married and now I have four children. Life was good but it got much better when the Loka Women’s Association (LWA) started and for the first time I had the hope of learning new skills that could help improve my life.

"I was one of the first to enrol in the first literacy and numeracy class. I learnt to read and write, about vegetable production, sewing and how to make mine and my children’s clothes. I even learnt how to tie-dye and I hope soon to make tie-dye to sell in the small shop I run selling vegetables.

"I was illiterate, not able to talk English to those who don’t know my tribal language, I couldn’t handle money but most of all I lacked confidence. I felt stupid, uneducated and unable to face people. Loka Women’s Association has given me the confidence to run a small business next to the busy Yei – Juba road, to handle money and to improve my life and the life of my family.

"Without LWA I wouldn’t have the skills or the confidence to do any of these things and my life would be much more difficult.