• About US
  • Our Work
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
  • Login
JFJ - Journalists for Justice
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
JFJ - Journalists for Justice
No Result
View All Result

Uganda’s war victims can smile again

byJanet Sankale
October 14, 2022
in Victim Voices
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Uganda’s war victims can smile again

An AVSI Foundation technologist working at the Gulu Regional Orthopaedic Workshop (GROW) explains how prosthetics are made.

During the Joint Monitoring Mission to Uganda organised by the Embassy of Ireland in The Hague and the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV), with the assistance of the Embassy of Ireland in Kampala, the group visited the Gulu Regional Orthopaedic Workshop (GROW) in the regional referral hospital in Gulu, northern Uganda, to review the implementation of the TFV programme.

“This leg is very good. It has enabled me to do a lot of things,” Margaret Aloyojok told the delegates to the Joint Monitoring Mission to Uganda who were visiting the Gulu Regional Orthopaedic Workshop (GROW) in the regional referral hospital in Gulu.

However, she had a request for her benefactors: “Can these limbs be made from stronger materials?”

Aloyojok is not complaining. In fact, she is happy. She has a reason to smile again. For a long time after stepping on a landmine that blew off her leg at the height of the war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government, she had nothing to look forward to. She could not even carry out the most mundane of household chores because she found it difficult to move without a limb.

RelatedPosts

Tears and agony as Uganda survivors recall brutal police attacks

Face-to-face with victims of atrocity crimes: Confronting impact of war on ordinary people

Look, I’m happy: Tales of resilience, hope, and survival

Margaret Aloyojok speaks to the delegates who visited the workshop during the Joint Monitoring Visit.

Her request about the prosthetic that has changed her life springs from her concern that it has to be maintained. It needs minor repairs every year because of wear and tear has to be replaced every two years.

Aloyojok is one of the lucky war victims who have benefited from the rehabilitation centre at GROW. And she wishes others in her community could get the help she has received.

“The support has not reached all the people in the community,” she said.

Aloyojok’s story is typical of a wartime situation, which brings suffering to innocent civilians. On that fateful day, August 15, 2003, she was on her way to fetch water from the spring when she slipped and fell into a ditch. Unknowingly, she had landed on a landmine. After the explosion, she realised something was wrong when she tried to get up but could not lift her leg. She also noticed that she was bleeding profusely. She was lucky to be rescued by Uganda government soldiers who were passing by. They rushed her to a hospital nearby, where the bleeding was stopped. However, her leg could not be saved due to the shattered bones and had to be amputated.

RELATED: Look, I’m happy: Tales of resilience, hope, and survival

This was the beginning of a difficult time in her life. She was shunned by members of her family and her husband left, abandoning her and her three children. She had no home and no way to help herself and her family because of her new disability. Going to live with her brother’s family offered no solution and instead heightened the tensions in the home as his wife threatened to leave. Aloyojok felt helpless, worthless, and alone.

It was while in this state that she came into contact with representatives from the AVSI Foundation, who connected her to the rehabilitation centre at GROW. In addition to the artificial limb, she also received psychological support to help her cope with her situation.

“Now I can till my farm. I can even fetch water in a 20-litre jerrycan,” she told the delegates, proudly displaying her prosthetic right leg, which, from a distance, looks remarkably like a natural limb.

Richard Ongom echoes Aloyojok’s sentiments.

Richard Ongom addresses the delegates to the Joint Monitoring Visit.

“Without these limbs, we cannot do any work,” he said.

He also lost his leg in a landmine explosion on October 9, 2003, which killed two people and seriously injured five others. He had to stay a long time in the hospital to nurse his amputated limb and other injuries, as well as receive rehabilitation. He felt hopeless, his children dropped out of school, and his family went hungry.

In addition, he had nightmares, reliving the horror of the day he was injured. He became withdrawn.

Aloyojok and Ongom are two of the more than 1,800 persons who have received support from the workshop, most of them with the intervention of the AVSI Foundation.

For the AVSI Foundation Country Representative John Makoha this is not just a number. “It is not merely statistics of 1,800 but the transformation of individual lives and families.”

That is why he believes the funding and support received from the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) is crucial as it assists in this transformation.
And he finds it particularly appropriate at this stage in the foundation’s existence.

“As AVSI Foundation celebrates its 50th anniversary, we are telling ourselves we are renewing our commitment by looking at the things we started and understanding if we still hold that mission; the mission of serving everybody,” he said.

As the foundation has learnt, serving does not come without challenges. Makoha said many of the patients find it difficult to get to the rehabilitation centre. Therefore, every year, his organisation has to devise appropriate means of reaching them so that they can get the assistance they need.

The AVSI Foundation in Uganda established the workshop in 1998 with the support of the Italian Government. It aimed to cater for landmine injuries resulting from the LRA insurgency.

ALSO READ: The guns are silenced, but the wounds are still with us

Through the support of the TFV, victims have continued to receive mobility appliances and a variety of rehabilitation services. GROW has evolved into a regional rehabilitation centre, serving more than 400 war victims annually by enabling access to prostheses, orthoses, physiotherapy, counselling, and occupational therapy services.

It is the biggest orthopaedic workshop in Uganda and the only one providing services to war victims from the Acholi, Lango, Teso sub-regions and Adjumani district.

The AVSI Foundation describes itself as a “non-governmental organisation that has been working in northern Uganda since 1984, in providing health care, education, socio-economic, humanitarian and development services even during some of the hardest times in the war”.

Tags: Uganda
Previous Post

The 10 who have been shortlisted for ICC Registrar job

Next Post

Leveraging digital technology to further the human rights agenda

Next Post
Digital Technology Human Rights

Leveraging digital technology to further the human rights agenda

Please login to join discussion

Recent Posts

  • New marathon international trial in The Hague?
  • ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova in Ukraine Conflict
  • Félicien Kabuga’s IRMCT trial suspended indefinitely over dementia claims
  • Darfur victims to wait longer for justice as Khan’s new strategy faces challenges
  • The Hague to host new Ukraine Damage Register

Follow us on Twitter

JFJ – Journalists for Justice

We call out impunity wherever it occurs; we advocate justice for all victims of atrocity crimes; and we work with people of goodwill everywhere who share our values.

Subscribe to our Newsletter


Loading

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers

Copyright © 2019. Journalists for Justice has asserted its right to be recognized as creators and owners of the content here. Reproduction in part or in whole is permitted on condition that JFJ is acknowledged and notified.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.