ChildFocus: Irene

Irene is a child mother, abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army when she was just eleven years old. After being in captivity under rebel control, Irene escaped and was consequently shunned by her family on her return home. A young teen, having given birth to a son, ChildVoice International found her living in a hut with her baby. They were malnourished and unwell. When she arrived at the ChildVoice Centre in Lukodi, she and her infant child began the journey towards healing.

Today, you can watch young Irene as she cares for her one-year-old child, learns to sew during her vocational training, bakes in the kitchen at the Centre and sleeps uninterrupted each night as she looks forward to what the next day will hold. Probably, she will continue her studies, prepare meals for her son and sing at chapel. This is her life now, filled with a little hope and sprinkled with a little peace. A few years ago however, her future was painted with bleak reminders of a horrific period spent in captivity with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Abducted in 2004, Irene's life as she knew it was shattered in a matter of moments. She was torn away from a family that loved her, her friends, her culture and ultimately, her childhood. The facts are sometimes muddled and the timeframes are indistinct - it comes as a common result of the abuse suffered under the control of the LRA. Irene was captured in Gulu District, and forced to walk long distances through the bush. All around her and at every turn, this eleven-year-old child saw destruction and death and unspeakable cruelty. She saw fellow countrymen murdered; pregnant, starving mothers forced to haul crushing loads of supplies for the rebels; children ripped from their families and unimaginable violence of all kinds - all at the hands of the LRA. Irene, adrift in the chaos, had no food to satisfy her hunger and no guardian to satisfy her need for safety.

A lifetime of horror suffered in a nightmare that lasted only one week. Then she escaped.

Now, Irene endures the memories of those seven days as they linger in her head and heart and color the life of little Lubagakene, her one- year- old son. Born to a mother who needed a mother herself, he has shared Irene's hardships and struggles.

In the hazy truth of uncertain occurrences, it is told that Irene immediately went home after her escape with no immediate rehabilitation. She returned to the house of her mother, where she was shunned and ultimately driven away. The way Irene recalls her story; she is not sure if it was because she was a returnee or if it was because her mother remarried. Seeing no option, Irene left her mother's house. She lived with a man and conceived his child. After being ridiculed by her family for her living situation, she eventually returned to her mother.

In the end, she moved into her own hut, alone with her child and few provisions. With no money to pay the rent and no food to fulfill their malnourished bodies, the ChildVoice staff found Irene there, on the brink of catastrophe.

Lubagakene, then seven months, was hungry, ill and despondent. Lubagakene, which means "God alone can save this child", was on the threshold of death. He fought to sit up, hold his head erect, and failed to react to stimulation. He was in a seemingly hopeless situation. The staff at ChildVoice immediately began treating Lubagakene and Irene at the Punena Clinic and the hospital, where the proper caring for their minds and bodies could begin.

In June of 2007, Lubagakene began to interact and become healthier. He smiled and giggled. He showed the spirit of a gleeful baby and it even reflected in the eyes of his mother. He began to crawl and babble and grin. His first tooth emerged- a symbol of the growth his body was undergoing. Irene told the ChildVoice staff that she is so happy ChildVoice came and "relieved her of her troubles" and now helps her to care for herself and her baby.

Today, Lubagakene's favorite game is to run around the Centre in Lukodi, grabbing onto the legs of the staff and other child mothers as they pretend to haul him around. He plays and toddles about the grounds, amusing himself with other children and learns life lessons in every new moment at the Centre. From a short distance away, his mother Irene, having lost her childhood herself takes joy in watching her own son enjoy his childhood. Irene's life, once smothered with despair, is now blessed with dreams and peppered with possibility.