LRA returnees to get free medical services

By Arnest Tumwesige

FIFTY former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel abductees who returned from captivity with medical complications are set to receive free medical services from World Vision Uganda.

This is after the NGO received funds worth sh520m from their counter parts in New Zealand to revive the formerly abducted person’s recovery and empowerment project for two years targeting Gulu district.

Harriet Aloyo the programs manager Gulu cluster told New Vision on Monday that identification of those with serious conditions has started and treatment will vary according to the complexity of the ailments.

Aloyo explained that the there are several returnees who came back with bullet wounds and shrapnel which requires treatment.

“The project will also extend psychosocial services to the returnees at grass root level so that they are guided and counseled to help them heal from the war trauma,” Aloyo explained.

She noted that out of frustration and lack of employment, a number of them mostly the youth have left villages for town and end up on streets smoking marijuana which is risky for the community.

“We want to empower them through encouraging them to join Village Saving Loan Associations (VSLA’s), organize them in groups to start commercial farming and link them to potential markets,” she noted.

World Vision estimates that, about 17,000 returnees have been integrated into the community but with little medical care.

Stella Lallam aged 27; a resident of Pece division who was abducted at the age of 10 in 1998 is one of those who have decided to persevere with the pain of bullet fragments that are still in her left side of the ribs.

Lallam says because of the pain she cannot carry heavy things and having an operation has never crossed her mind for lack of funds and the person to take care of her two children she came back with from captivity.

“When we escaped from South Sudan in 2003 and were taken to Rakele reception center in Lira district, I was brought to Gulu and going back to Lira for an operation was not possible because of a transport problem,” she recalls.

Sheik Musa Kelil, the vice chairperson Acholi Religious Peace Initiative said several returnees that have been integrated into the community did not go through the rehabilitation centers which leave them vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Kelil noted that, the departure of NGO’s from the district and the entire region created a vacuum of service delivery to returnees as government cannot effectively address the challenge.

He asked government to design a specific component under the PRDP III to empower the spiritual and cultural leaders to reach such people.