A former child soldier who was sexually assaulted and forced into Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) will be awarded for her role in peace building in Uganda this week.
Angela Atim Lakor will receive the Marsh Award for Peace-making and Peace building from the prestigious Wilton Park in London after she co-founded the Watye Ki Gen charity, which translates as ‘we have hope’.
The group supports females who have returned from the LRA and their children and aims to help women fight the stigma associated with being a LRA survivor. When they return to their villages the association with LRA affects every area of their lives from employment to their children’s education.
After she escaped the infamous LRA Angela was supported by World Vision’s Children of War Reintegration Centre which has helped reintegrate nearly 15,000 former child soldiers and children born in captivity in the past decade.
Erica Hall, World Vision UK’s Technical Policy Lead on Child Protection, said: ‘Children are vulnerable in the face of conflict. Recent UN figures show that there were at least 14,500 grave violations against children in armed conflict last year, including recruitment, sexual violence and abductions.’
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I wish to congratulate Angela Atim Lakor for her dedication to integrate well and show other ladies that it’s hard work and determination that leads to success .