"I'm grateful to God for the African Leadership family, which supported this training and enabled me to heal from my trauma." — Piloya Jennifer
The Night Everything Changed
In the remote villages of Bungatira, in northern Uganda, life existed under the heavy shadow of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). This rebel group, infamous for its brutal tactics and the abduction of innocent children, inflicted deep wounds on the community — especially its most vulnerable members.
One fateful night, as a low moon lit the sky, a group of LRA fighters descended on Bungatira, shattering the tranquility of the homes there. Fear filled the air, shouts echoing through the dark alongside the terrifying sound of gunfire. Amid this chaos stood a twelve-year-old girl named Jennifer — filled with dreams of education and friendship that suddenly felt impossibly far away.
"In an instant, my life changed forever," Jennifer remembers. "I was torn from my family, my cries for help swallowed by the turmoil around me." She was abducted and taken to a remote camp, where the grim reality of being a child soldier awaited her. The rebels tried to strip away her innocence and force an allegiance to a cause she could not comprehend.
Learning to Survive
The training was grueling. Jennifer learned to carry a gun, its weight strange against her small frame. "Fear is a weakness," one rebel leader warned her. "You must become strong." As the weeks wore on, her resilience began to fade under the pressure of obedience and survival.
Yet a flicker of hope remained — a longing for freedom, for laughter, for the childhood she had lost. She found something to hold onto in the friendships she formed with other abducted children, who carried the same fears and the same memories of home.
During a raid near Lamwo, Jennifer's unit met unexpected resistance from government forces. In the chaos, she saw her chance and ran — pushing through fear that had held her for so long. Days later, a government ambush forced an agonizing choice: run or stay. Her friend chose to run. Gunfire answered. Jennifer watched her fall, and the weight of that loss has never fully lifted.
Jennifer's escape saved her life. It could not, on its own, heal what the war had broken in her.
Where Healing Became Possible
Jennifer was brought to a rehabilitation center established by World Vision Uganda, where she spent almost six months relearning how to rest, how to speak, and how to hope. In a supportive group of other survivors, she began to voice feelings she had buried and to confront memories that had haunted her sleep. It was the first place healing felt possible.
When she returned home, she found her mother had been broken by grief — disconnected from reality, and her relatives unwilling to take her in. Jennifer took on the role of caregiver, the two of them searching daily for enough food to survive. It would have been easy for her story to end there.
It didn't, because a mentor from the rehabilitation center connected her to organizations supporting orphans and vulnerable children — among them, the African Leadership family. That connection paid for her school fees through senior six and, later, opened the door to university. It also led her to a trauma-healing training that would change how she understood her own story.
A New Understanding of Healing
"Before this trauma healing training," Jennifer says, "I equated trauma with being overwhelmed by relentless, painful situations. But I learned that trauma is a profound wound in both heart and mind — one that takes considerable time to heal, and that can disconnect us from both God and others."
The training gave her language for what she had lived through: the importance of expressing feelings in order to heal; the comfort she found in Isaiah 61:1–3; and a picture of the "road of life" through three villages — denial and anger, hopelessness, and finally, a new beginning.
It also gave her purpose. Jennifer now uses what she learned to support other traumatized children — observing their behavior, listening to their pain, working toward family reunification, and knowing when a child's needs call for a professional's care. The girl who once fled through the underbrush now leads other children toward their own new beginning.
"I'm grateful to God for the African Leadership family, which supported this training and enabled me to heal from my trauma. May God richly bless the AL family." — Piloya Jennifer
There Is Another Village Ahead
Jennifer's escape got her out of the LRA camp. It was the training, the mentorship, and the sustained support of people like you that got her to university — and gave her back a future. That is the difference the African Leadership family makes: not just rescue, but the long walk from rescue to a new beginning.
There are more children walking that same road — through denial and anger, through hopelessness — who have not yet reached their third village. Your continued partnership is what turns that road into a path someone can actually walk.
Will you help another Jennifer find her way home?