Kampala (Fides Service) - In 18 years of civil war in northern Uganda, more than 35,000 children have been abducted and forced to right by the Lord’s Resistance Army LRA. “The figure is realistic although precise figures do not exist ” Filippo Ciantia, head of AVSI in Uganda told Fides. AVSI is an Italian Association of Volunteers for International Development. “Half of them managed to escape and find their way home. Probably half of those who remained have been killed in combat with the government troops army and the rest are still in the rebel ranks”. These children are forced to fight or they are used as slave porters while the girl soldiers are abused.
“AVSI first addressed the problem of child soldiers ten years ago in Rwanda, during the genocide. We formed a special team to provide counselling for traumatised children ” Filippo Ciantia told Fides. “Later, when civil war in Uganda became more serious, we started a project for the rehabilitation of children abducted and enlisted by the LRA ”.
“We try to provide both psychological and material help to the children and to host families” Filippo Ciantia told Fides. “The children are suffering from trauma after witnessing and committing terrible crimes. They need help to reacquire self-respect, to realise that they are still loved despite the evil they were forced to commit. It is amazing to see how the human heart is able to overcome even the most tragic situations when there is someone to help them. Once they are resettled with their own or a host family and they return to school they gradually find new confidence in themselves and in those around them”.
“In the last year alone we helped 1,500 children” Filippo Ciantia told Fides. “In this work we are helped by Africa’s culture with its extended family. In fact between 30 and 40 percent of these children are orphans whose parents were killed during or after their abduction. Once they manage to escape they always find a relation of a neighbour family, ready to give them a home. We provide material assistance to the family for the child’s upkeep and schooling”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/3/2004, righe 25, parole 370)