Sister Angelique Namaika has been recognized by the U.N. for helping female victims of the Lord's Resistance Army
A Congolese nun working in the Democratic Republic of Congo is making a difference.
Sister Angelique Namaika
has been recognized for her extraordinary humanitarian work with victims
of atrocities committed by members of the Lord's Resistance Army, the
militant group led by African warlord Joseph Kony.
The LRA took up arms
against the Ugandan gvernment in the 1980s and soon became notorious for
killing, kidnapping and brutalizing people throughout central Africa.
Its members are known for hacking off the lips and ears of their
victims, looting villages and burning huts, and stealing clothes and
medicine from the communities they terrorize. Those who survived attacks
have been deeply scarred.
Namaika, who has received
the Nansen Refugee Award United Nations award for her work in the DRC,
has helped rebuild the lives of more than 2,000 women and girls caught
in the LRA's web. She has dedicated the award to all the women and
children who were abducted by the LRA.
Sister Angelique Namaika meets the Pop, Oct. 18, 2013.
Namaika said she was
inspired to follow the path of social work as a child when she saw a
German nun, Sister Tone, who used to visit her village to help the less
fortunate.
"I thought it was worth
giving more efforts for the women that had suffered at the hands of the
LRA for two to three years," she told CNN. "It was very difficult
because I had to bring some sort of cure, to relieve them of what they
had been through. One of the main goals of providing these trainings was
for the women to feel valued within society and be autonomous."
Pope Francis offers blessing
The number of people
trying to recover from the LRA's reign of terror is staggering. The
group has displaced 2.5 million people in the DRC, Uganda, South Sudan
and the Central African Republic over the last 30 years, according to
the U.N., making it the world's largest and longest-running displacement
predicament. Countless families have been destroyed or split apart in
this time.
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Namaika told CNN: "Some
women did not directly witness the atrocities performed by the LRA, but
they saw them through their children whom they counted on. This one
woman had three of her children taken from her, two boys and a girl, one
of the boys was killed in the jungle, the other had both his arms
amputated, and the girl had a sexually transmitted disease. And this
woman carries this pain in her heart."
Namaika recently met
with Pope Francis and sought blessing for the victims of the LRA. Just
before the meeting she said: "I am going to ask him for a special
blessing for us and for me, for me to continue to have the courage I
need to fulfil my mission to help women to find their lives again."'
Working in the
north-eastern Congolese town of Dungu, Namaika said she has worked with
women who were captured by LRA rebels when they were as young as 11 or
12.
"For me, the impact on
the country is what they have done in the hearts of thousands of
Congolese children. He kidnapped children, who represent the future of
the country. It is as if they destroyed the future of the country."
"They still spread fear
throughout the local villages, and no matter what anyone thinks, even if
someone feels safe, Kony could come out with his group very
unexpectedly. People are still very afraid of going through what they
went through."
After years hiding in
the jungle, the number of LRA fighters is thought to be down to a
handful, and the U.N. report says there's been a drop in the frequency
of attacks against civilians. It is good news, but as Namaika knows, the
healing will go on for years to come.
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