Former Aboke girl honoured for fighting stigma among former abductees

PEACE| RESTORATION 

A former student of St. Mary's College Aboke in Kole district who was abducted by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels two decades ago and sexually abused has been honoured for fighting stigma, and support to other former kidnapped women and children born in captivity.

Angela Atim Lakor, 35, was one of 30 girls selected and retained by LRA rebels after they stormed the school at night few hours after 34^th Uganda's independence anniversary on October10, 1996 and abducted over 139 girls, most of them in senior one and two.

After she escaped from LRA captivity in 2012, Angela was supported by the World Vision Children of War Reintegration Centre in Gulu. She later co-founded the Watye Ki Gen (We have hope) organisation which supports female returnees from the LRA and their children, helping them cope with stigma and their children's education.

World Vision, which partners with the organisation said Lakor will present a Tedx Talk on her experience of war as a child as part of this year's Whitehall Women event at HMS President in London this Friday.

She will also receive the Marsh Award for Peace-making and Peace building from the prestigious Wilton Park as part of the event, sharing it with fellow human rights campaigner Fareeda Abbas Rasho Khalaf, a member of the Yazda Yazidi women's organization, survivors of ISIL enslavement and genocide.

The annual Marsh Award is presented to participants nominated for having made an impactful contribution to peace making and peacekeeping.

The winners receive a financial award from the Marsh Christian Trust (MCT) to help further their work and a certificate signed by both the chairman of Wilton Park and Brian Marsh.

In 2014, Lakor was in London where she urged UN chiefs and heads of governments from 140 countries to act to bring the perpetrators of such abhorrent crimes of sexual violence in war to account. This was during Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict chaired by William Hague and Angelina Jolie, the UN Special Envoy.

She is quoted on World Vision website saying, "If we all come together we can end sexual violence in conflict. Action begins with me, it begins with you."

World Vision's Children of War Reintegration Centre said they have helped rehabilitate and reintegrate nearly 15,000 former child soldiers and children born in captivity in the past decade.