Stories from Gulu and Acet | Stories from Awer

Paper to Pearls supports 20 child mothers in the Gulu municipality. Alice Amony's story represents that of many girls who were abducted by the rebels.

Alice Amony, 22

Alice was abducted along with her brother in 1999 when she was 12. She escaped in 2005 when her rebel "husband" was killed in a skirmish. At the time she had a two-year old child and was pregnant with a second. Alice was in a rehabilitation center for six months and then went to live with her sister, whose husband died of AIDS. She now supports her sister and her sister's four children as well as herself and her little boy and girl. The income she currently earns from our purchase of her necklaces enables her to buy products in the local market to resell. With this income she meets the family's daily needs and is able to pay school fees for the older children.

Betty Oloyo, 34

Betty has lived in the Gulu township for 18 years, after leaving her home in Palaro because of the war.  A widow, she cares for five of her own children and four of her sister's who were orphaned when the rebels killed their mother and father.

Betty is HIV positive, as are her two youngest children.  She says that "life has become easier" for her because of Paper to Pearls.  She now eats two meals a day instead of one and can afford to buy the milk that is one of the few foods her two youngest will eat.  She is able to pay for transportation to the local hospital and for the medications and supplements she needs.  In addition, she has used her beading income to buy a set of chairs and a cupboard for her house, and—luxury of luxuries—-a cell phone, an essential mode of communication in Africa. 

Most important, Betty now believes she will live to see her children educated.
HIV limits her strength and energy and hard work is debilitating.  Before she began beading, she had to garden to grow food for her family, selling part of what she grew for income.  Now she thinks about the "empowerment" the beading income has given her and dreams of the small house she hopes to build one day when she can finally go home to Palaro.

Florence Okot, 34

One of the few Paper to Pearls beaders in Gulu town who is not a widow, Florence has six children, ages three to 14. She says that one of the principal benefits of the income she earns from beading is the "authority" she now has as a woman.  Her teenage daughter, who is "bright and talented ", sees her mother as a role model for her own independence.  "I now have such a great relationship with her, and with my sons as well."  Her husband, who earns income as a "boda boda" driver (boda boda is the name for the motorbike that serves as a form of taxi in Gulu town), tells her that if her beading business really takes off, he will park his bike and start beading with her.  

Jennifer Mutesa, 40 

Jennifer has spent the last 10 years in the Acet camp. Three of her five children were born there. The two orphans she cares for have been in the camp since they were 10 and five.

Paper to Pearls gives her " a lot of happiness". She can afford to buy clothes and shoes for her children and herself, and school uniforms for her children.  Instead of sleeping on mats, her family now has comfortable bedding.  She uses a portion of her beading income to pay school fees and dreams of seeing her 20-year-old daughter complete secondary school.

Josephine Aol, 30

Although she has never married, Josephine has the responsibility for seven children, all orphaned by the deaths of her sister and brother.  Two of the oldest, now 21 and 17, were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army.  They were able to escape and are now receiving counseling and vocational training. 

For Josephine, Paper to Pearls has "rejuvenated" her life.  The income she earns enables her to buy what she needs for her household on a daily basis, and has made it possible for her to send two children to secondary school.  An orphan herself, she says everyone doubted her ability to care for her nieces and nephews.  But now she has regular income—far more than she was able to earn through intermittent gardening—and with it has come the respect of her family and the community.

Josephine believes that her group of beaders is different from the other women in the camp.  For them there is no more gossiping and idleness, only focus on their work. That work, she says, is giving her nieces and nephews "a real chance", enabling her to meet their needs and ensure that they are in school.  And school, she adds, helps them avoid the negative influences of the camp.

Christine Okello, 50

The mother of 13 children aged 35 to eight, Christine has lived in the Acet camp for nine years.  Like all the beaders, she laments the effect of camp life on the children.  It has made them wild, she says, and dependent on relief aid, while susceptible to negative peer pressures.  Like many mothers she tries to keep the Acholi culture alive within her family, telling stories of the traditional ways, of life before the war. 

Partially paralyzed from a snake bite, she is not to able garden and uses a portion of her beading income to pay others to do her gardening for her.  This leaves her additional time to devote to beading, which has become her lifeline and that of her family.

Paska Otim, 42

For six of the 11 years she has spent in the camp, Paska has cared for her brother's five children, after he died of illness.  Where once she rented a garden from the money she earned from brewing the local liquor, she now provides what her family needs from her beading income. Importantly, she has earned her husband's respect and as a result, has peace in her home.