The Uganda Chronicles : Nuzhat Shahzadi

by Nuzhat Shahzadi

On a sunny morning in 1996, I landed at the Jomo Kenyatta airport, Nairobi with my adolescent son. A very big man––an HR assistant from ESARO met us wearing even a bigger smile. That was the beginning of my real “African” journey.

I had been to Africa several times on short-term assignments before joining ESARO. It was a different world out there in the 1990s . . . it was an impossible time of hopes and heartbreaks; war, reconciliation and peace . . .

I was employed to spearhead a regional girl-child project in ESAR (1996-Feb 2000)––“the Sara Communication Initiative” with a focus on the protection, survival and empowerment of adolescent girls. HIV and AIDS were real threats along with the horrors of civil conflicts exacerbated by cultural practices that threatened health, emotional well being and rights of the girls. Among others, Uganda was one of my focus countries. I was invited by Kathleen Cravero, the Representative to support the country office.

In my first mission I was introduced to an amazing national officer– Grace Banya. Grace and I began our work on girls’ rights. She was personally impacted by political violence when Museveni was leading rebellions to liberate Uganda. Grace and her husband had to flee the country and lived in the UK for several years. I was a survivor of a horrific genocide in my adolescence (liberation war of Bangladesh 1971). We bonded.

I received a Christmas card from Kathleen. It had the names of hundreds of children abducted/killed by the LRA in Northern Uganda. It read–“These children will not be home for Christmas this year.” It pierced my heart.

Grace and I organized life skills building workshops for adolescent girls and boys and psychosocial NGOs that worked with children who were victims of LRA, sexual abuse as well as HIV/AIDS. Paul from ACET was an asset to us. We met Margaret who worked in Northern Uganda––had lost both her legs to an anti-personnel landmine implanted by the LRA. Kony, the LRA leader, was terrorizing the region. Margaret told us about Angelina– the thirteen years old who was abducted by LRA and escaped a year later while pregnant. She gave birth in a bush as reported by some villagers and then vanished. Her mother Christina travelled to get her, but couldn’t find Angelina. She later formed a mothers’ support group to console bereaved moms like her.

Grace convinced me on the need to produce one Uganda-specific episode of Sara on children affected by armed conflicts. We hired a local writer who developed a story draft with our help. However, she failed to incorporate the field research findings and didn’t complete the story. Grace and I took over and “Sara and the Boy Soldier” comic book was published, eventually. Edward (possibly), a national staff working on emergency was our focal point for dissemination of the book.

I learnt about “Matuputo” or “Mato oput” ––the ritual of reintegrating children who had escaped from LRA camps back into the society. LRA forced the abducted children to kill and engage in atrocities against their own communities as a part of the induction process. Girls were usually given as wives to LRA men. “Matuputo” had slight variations––the kids were made to walk over eggshells spread under a piece of 3-4 feet long cloth. As they reached the end they were given a large bowl of water or goat’s blood to throw ahead of them. It meant rebirth––all sins and the violent past were left behind and forgiven . . . a coping mechanism for the kids and the community. And it worked.

Simultaneously, with support from country offices I continued with Life Skills workshops with young people in eighteen countries. National “Sara” clubs were formed with adolescents and youth. The issue of “sugar daddy” came up constantly. HIV/AIDS was claiming lives. Millions of kids were orphaned. Children took care of their siblings, became household heads. Uganda was badly hit – grandmothers were left with the care of large broods of grandkids. Museveni came out strongly in support of voluntary and confidential counseling and testing (VCCT) and engagement of youth in preventing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

We faced challenges from adolescent and youth participants in our workshops . . . In Uganda a sixteen-year-old girl had a question for us: “We’re learning to avoid risky behaviors, abstain from sex, how to say ‘no’ . . . but I have sex with older men to feed my brothers and sisters, my disabled dad, sick mom. Sex gives me money to buy food . . . What shall I do?” It was like a whiplash. Harsh reality. We, the facilitators, broke for lunch early to discuss. As a team we advised the girl to negotiate for condom use with her sugar daddy. We were so powerless!

Community level awareness was needed to stop exploitation of young girls by sugar daddies. We developed a regional Sara package on this issue: “The Trap.” (Work began in 1996––was completed over a year later).

A couple of years later, I met Angelina’s mom at a workshop. We embraced and I started crying. “Don’t cry . . . it’s our time to help others . . . we will get there,” she whispered with kindness.

Click on the link to watch the video I directed––”The Trap” on fighting “sugar daddies.” The cover pages of “Sara and the Boy soldier” and “The Trap” are included here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA6_CxxVpak&t=5s

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