By Shingo Ogawa | Project Leader
Yulin (alias) was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (armed group: LRA) at the age of 13. She was forced to fight as a girl soldier for 6 years.
When she returned to her village, her parents were already dead. She had no relatives. Even worse, she could not be accepted by the people in the village and became the target of discrimination and prejudice.
Four years after her return, she began attending our vocational training, acquired skills in dressmaking and small business, and was able to graduate. Her first salary after becoming self-reliant was about $100.
She continued to work hard at her sewing business, using the skills she had acquired to make bags and work in a workshop. However, in April 2020, it became impossible to do any jobs she had been able to do at all, because the city was shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
She thought, "Even if I can't do dressmaking, I might be able to earn money with a small business!" So she started a grocery retail business, but that did not work out either, and her income dropped to zero.
Since the beginning of May 2020, we, Terra Renaissance, had been asking the graduates of our vocational training to help make masks. Yulin was one of the people we called for.
We urged them to make more and more masks, because we received many requests from the Ugandan government to distribute masks, but her hard work really surprised us. She produced the most masks out of all the graduates who made masks for us.
She struggled to get out of the painful experience of a child soldier, achieved her self-reliance, overcame the desperation of this COVID-19 catastrophe flexibly, and made her dream come true. Her life tells us how strong the fundamental power inside human beings is.
As Yulin is doing well, many former child soldiers are struggling to be self-reliant. In ordet to continue supporting them, kindly we request you to support us, especially at this time.
Thank you for your continued support.
Best regards,
Shingo Ogawa
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