War victims find solace in Pastor Childers’ arms
Feb 26, 2006
A BURLY white man, with a hairy chest, stout bushy arms and bearded face, strokes the shoulders of the black little chap seated near him. The boy, dressed in a T-shirt and blue jersey, smiles back at the guardian, exposing a huge gap in the front teeth.
By Denis Ocwich
A BURLY white man, with a hairy chest, stout bushy arms and bearded face, strokes the shoulders of the black little chap seated near him. The boy, dressed in a T-shirt and blue jersey, smiles back at the guardian, exposing a huge gap in the front teeth.
But it is not the “toothless†smile, rather the deep hole in the place of his right eye, which touches your heart.
The little boy now relies on one eye — the left one, after losing the other to the rebels in northern Uganda.
“The eyeball was shot out of his head. In the same incident, his sister was shot on the neck,†says Pr. Samuel Childers. “It is God’s miracle that either of them is living.â€
The siblings and their family fell in a Lords Resistance Army (LRA) ambush on Kitgum-Gulu road on May 17, 2003. Both their parents and sister were supposedly burnt alive in the attack.
Angela and Walter were left for dead, but they survived by a whisker. And now they live to bear testimony to the brutal twin-conflicts in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
Today, the two children are part of war victims who have found solace in the arms of Childers of the African Ministries, a Christian charity organisation that rescues, traces and rehabilitates children caught in war. The funds are sought from well-wishers in the US.
The NGO runs an orphanage in Nimule, Southern Sudan.
The project is managed in close cooperation with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). So far, they have helped over 300 children over the last four years.
“But it is not a venture for the faint-hearted. To rescue the children, including those abducted by the rebels, it sometimes requires going to the battlefield,†Childers says.
So are you a soldier? Childers rubs his bearded chin and answers: “I am a soldier for Christ.â€
At 43, Childers, an Indian American, has been born-again for the last 14 years. He made his first trip to Sudan eight years ago.
The journey ended up being heart-rending. He came face to face with children on the threshold of death.
That completely changed his life from businessman to shepherd of child victims of the Sudanese conflict.
“I saw a child blown by landmine,†he says of how he started the Children’s Village.
The programme involves rescuing children from war areas and placing them at the orphanage, before re-uniting them with their families. But some children have either lost both parents or do not know the whereabouts of their families. So they stick to the orphanage.
At the centre, the teenagers are put into formal schools and their fees paid by Africa Ministries, an affiliate of the US-based World Missions.
“Some of our children were never in school, but now they are on top of the class,†says Childers. Many of the young girls were sexually abused by either the SPLA or LRA rebels. And some of them are yet to recover from the trauma.
“Sometimes they wake up and shout in the middle of the night,†observes Childers. “When you have watched your parents killed, you can’t have a settled mind.â€
Angela still has a bullet fragment stuck in her neck. “But they cannot get the bullet out because it is close to the spinal code,†says Childers, who has a branch in Gulu and another in Kampala, where Ugandan kids rescued from Sudan are rehabilitated.
Both Walter and Angela, who have now been given the name Childers, are currently living in Kampala. Angela is in a private English class to learn the language before she can be enrolled in primary school.
Meanwhile, Walter was last year flown to the US, where he spent seven months undergoing treatment on his eye.
The little duo’s tale is just, but a tip of the iceberg. Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Sudanese and Ugandan children have been victims of the war on either side of the border.
“There are children who are still living alone in the bush right now. Many of them have been orphaned. Our goal is to put them back to their families,†Childers pledges. Now that the guns have fallen silent in Southern Sudan, the search for the abandoned or stranded kids and orphans may have to take centre stage. Perhaps it will call for expansion of the Children’s Village in southern Sudan to northern Uganda.
So far, plans have been sketched out to start vocational (including mechanic and woodwork training) for the war victims.
“We still have a lot of work to do,†he admits, well aware of the huge impact of the war on children. “We will also have to teach foster parenting to the people of Southern Sudan so that children who have lost their parents can find solace in somebody’s arms.â€
For young and innocent Walter, one eye lost is bad enough. And both parents and relatives killed is perhaps the worst. But at least he can thank God that Childers is the Messiah fitting in the shoes of his dead father.
A BURLY white man, with a hairy chest, stout bushy arms and bearded face, strokes the shoulders of the black little chap seated near him. The boy, dressed in a T-shirt and blue jersey, smiles back at the guardian, exposing a huge gap in the front teeth.
But it is not the “toothless†smile, rather the deep hole in the place of his right eye, which touches your heart.
The little boy now relies on one eye — the left one, after losing the other to the rebels in northern Uganda.
“The eyeball was shot out of his head. In the same incident, his sister was shot on the neck,†says Pr. Samuel Childers. “It is God’s miracle that either of them is living.â€
The siblings and their family fell in a Lords Resistance Army (LRA) ambush on Kitgum-Gulu road on May 17, 2003. Both their parents and sister were supposedly burnt alive in the attack.
Angela and Walter were left for dead, but they survived by a whisker. And now they live to bear testimony to the brutal twin-conflicts in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
Today, the two children are part of war victims who have found solace in the arms of Childers of the African Ministries, a Christian charity organisation that rescues, traces and rehabilitates children caught in war. The funds are sought from well-wishers in the US.
The NGO runs an orphanage in Nimule, Southern Sudan.
The project is managed in close cooperation with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). So far, they have helped over 300 children over the last four years.
“But it is not a venture for the faint-hearted. To rescue the children, including those abducted by the rebels, it sometimes requires going to the battlefield,†Childers says.
So are you a soldier? Childers rubs his bearded chin and answers: “I am a soldier for Christ.â€
At 43, Childers, an Indian American, has been born-again for the last 14 years. He made his first trip to Sudan eight years ago.
The journey ended up being heart-rending. He came face to face with children on the threshold of death.
That completely changed his life from businessman to shepherd of child victims of the Sudanese conflict.
“I saw a child blown by landmine,†he says of how he started the Children’s Village.
The programme involves rescuing children from war areas and placing them at the orphanage, before re-uniting them with their families. But some children have either lost both parents or do not know the whereabouts of their families. So they stick to the orphanage.
At the centre, the teenagers are put into formal schools and their fees paid by Africa Ministries, an affiliate of the US-based World Missions.
“Some of our children were never in school, but now they are on top of the class,†says Childers. Many of the young girls were sexually abused by either the SPLA or LRA rebels. And some of them are yet to recover from the trauma.
“Sometimes they wake up and shout in the middle of the night,†observes Childers. “When you have watched your parents killed, you can’t have a settled mind.â€
Angela still has a bullet fragment stuck in her neck. “But they cannot get the bullet out because it is close to the spinal code,†says Childers, who has a branch in Gulu and another in Kampala, where Ugandan kids rescued from Sudan are rehabilitated.
Both Walter and Angela, who have now been given the name Childers, are currently living in Kampala. Angela is in a private English class to learn the language before she can be enrolled in primary school.
Meanwhile, Walter was last year flown to the US, where he spent seven months undergoing treatment on his eye.
The little duo’s tale is just, but a tip of the iceberg. Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Sudanese and Ugandan children have been victims of the war on either side of the border.
“There are children who are still living alone in the bush right now. Many of them have been orphaned. Our goal is to put them back to their families,†Childers pledges. Now that the guns have fallen silent in Southern Sudan, the search for the abandoned or stranded kids and orphans may have to take centre stage. Perhaps it will call for expansion of the Children’s Village in southern Sudan to northern Uganda.
So far, plans have been sketched out to start vocational (including mechanic and woodwork training) for the war victims.
“We still have a lot of work to do,†he admits, well aware of the huge impact of the war on children. “We will also have to teach foster parenting to the people of Southern Sudan so that children who have lost their parents can find solace in somebody’s arms.â€
For young and innocent Walter, one eye lost is bad enough. And both parents and relatives killed is perhaps the worst. But at least he can thank God that Childers is the Messiah fitting in the shoes of his dead father.