Paul Rubanga Kene, is a big smiling man with broad, expressive hands. He is the kind of person you’d want for an uncle.
While we talk, I notice he has clutched in his hand a crumpled letter. He tells me it is from a former abductee who has gone back to his community, but is in trouble.
It does not surprise me that in times of need, that the young man would turn, once again, to Paul for support.
He works at the Caritas Gulu Reception and Rehabilitation Centre in Northern Uganda as a social worker and is a father to seven of his own children.
But, more than those bare facts, Paul is heroic in his dedication.
He leaves his home and family behind to live, eat and sleep at the Caritas centre with those who have escaped abduction by the Lords Resistance Army rebel group.
He waits patiently for the moment when they open up enough to trust him. Perhaps then they will share what happened when they were in the bush.
“They have violent nightmares, there is lots of sobbing in the night. It is terrible to sit and listen day after day to the traumatic stories they tell, and staff can and do get secondary trauma. At night, it is sometimes not only the returned ones crying, but also the staff.”
The abductees are encouraged to draw. Father Felix Opio, head of Caritas Gulu, the social arm of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Gulu, shakes his head.
“The pictures they draw at first are so terrible; of helicopters, and ambushes, and blood from wounded victims. But after some time they start to draw homesteads, schools, hospitals. The houses have goats and chickens. It is a powerful image of their progress.”
During this futile conflict that has been waged for more than 20 years in the north of Uganda, tens of thousands of children were abducted.
Many were forced to kill as part of the initiation to being with the Lords Resistance Army rebels. Sometimes, and most terribly, they were forced to kill members of their own family.
“There is a high sense of guilt, and fear of retribution. We use traditional methods to help relieve guilt.
“For instance, the community uses raw eggs, which the person must walk over and break. It is an old Acholi tradition.
“It symbolizes breaking away from the bad past experiences and starting a new life just like a new chick breaks the shell of an egg to emerge into new life. It is very significant for the returnees,” explains Paul.
The trauma counselling that Caritas Gulu provides is not only for the victims, but also for the community. It helps to prepare the family to know how to handle the traumatised child.
Family reunions are sometimes very dramatic, emotional events. Local catechists arrange community prayers to bring the child home to the Church.
When the child comes, it is welcomed in jubilation and feels part of the community.
Finally comes reintegration. Reintegration is the acceptance and participation of the returned abductees in family and community life.
Signs such as getting married, and successfully farming their own land, begin to suggest they are becoming part of the community again. Caritas Gulu look forward to a time when they can consider people “reintegrated” and close the file.
Paul says the work that Caritas Gulu is doing is hard, but there is hope.
“I don’t get tired of doing the work because I can see the results. One lady was in the bush for thirteen years with two children. Now, with our help, she has finished school and is going to university.
“Another is a nurse at the local hospital. I am motivated because I see people determined themselves. They feel that not all is lost. They want to rediscover their glories. And we can build on that.”
Posted by BridgetB
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