from: http://www.theamazingchange.com/james.html
James
Whether in the U.S. or in countries such as Uganda, most fifth graders spent last summer escaping the rigors of school and enjoying the activities of a lazy summer vacation. Not James, an 11-year-old boy from northern Uganda. An abducted child kept as a slave in the Lord’s Resistance Army, he was forced to brutally kill his own brother who had been abducted with him. He was rescued from captivity, but demonstrates the fragile psyche of a child victim forced to kill or be killed.
James is now in a transit center in Lira, and the details of his abduction and captivity are just beginning to emerge from his silence. His deadened eyes and unwilling tongue betray the horror of recent months, when he was one of three brothers abducted by LRA rebels from their village. When one of his younger brothers tried to escape, the rebels pronounced a sentence of death as punishment as an example to other abducted children who would consider escape. The rebel leaders designated James and the third brother to execute their sibling using means too horrific to detail here. Adding to the horror, sometime later when James picked up a piece of cassava to chew on without permission, his overseer cut off part of his ear as punishment.
James was rescued in an army raid, but he is traumatized by the abuse of his captors, and although now free he needs enormous emotional and spiritual help if he is to recover and lead a productive life. This is the kind of enduring and critical help ChildVoice is trying to offer children enslaved by war.
James
Whether in the U.S. or in countries such as Uganda, most fifth graders spent last summer escaping the rigors of school and enjoying the activities of a lazy summer vacation. Not James, an 11-year-old boy from northern Uganda. An abducted child kept as a slave in the Lord’s Resistance Army, he was forced to brutally kill his own brother who had been abducted with him. He was rescued from captivity, but demonstrates the fragile psyche of a child victim forced to kill or be killed.
James is now in a transit center in Lira, and the details of his abduction and captivity are just beginning to emerge from his silence. His deadened eyes and unwilling tongue betray the horror of recent months, when he was one of three brothers abducted by LRA rebels from their village. When one of his younger brothers tried to escape, the rebels pronounced a sentence of death as punishment as an example to other abducted children who would consider escape. The rebel leaders designated James and the third brother to execute their sibling using means too horrific to detail here. Adding to the horror, sometime later when James picked up a piece of cassava to chew on without permission, his overseer cut off part of his ear as punishment.
James was rescued in an army raid, but he is traumatized by the abuse of his captors, and although now free he needs enormous emotional and spiritual help if he is to recover and lead a productive life. This is the kind of enduring and critical help ChildVoice is trying to offer children enslaved by war.
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