Grace, a community GBV Preventer in Uganda. (Photo Credit: Massa Kenneth)
By Massa Kenneth and Charles Lilley, CARE Uganda
Dudu Grace Edward is a 45-year-old single mother from South Sudan. She had to flee her home and is now living in a refugee settlement in Uganda. In total, more than one million people have fled to Uganda from South Sudan. 85 percent of them are women and children. Grace knows what it means to be a refugee, and a woman. In July 2017 the other camp residents selected her as a so called “Gender Based Violence (GBV) Preventer”. GBV Preventers like Grace help engage the community, raise awareness for the issue and how everyone can work together to support especially women and girls who are exposed to violence. Grace is one of 80 violence-preventers that were selected, trained and supported by CARE.
The first step for Grace, and other GBV Preventers is training. Grace became well versed in GBV concepts, basic counselling, how to raise awareness and mobilize the community. The training she has received through CARE has opened the door for her to be a positive role model for her community and to make an impact by identifying and helping those who suffer from GBV. “I am really very happy to be working with CARE. They trained us well. I had had some training from other agencies, but when I attended CARE’s training I understood GBV better,” Grace says. “Every time we need support, the CARE team responds immediately. When I put on the T-shirt, the community easily identifies me with CARE and I feel happy. I really want to be a good role model.”
Annet (not her real name) is a strong example of Grace’s abilities to help her community. Annet had a very traumatizing trip to Uganda. She was travelling with 20 people, including her two children, and the two orphaned children of her sister. They were stopped by armed men many times. One of the times she she was taken by them into the bush and was raped. The people travelling with her did whatever they could to make sure she would be released. Together with the four children in her care she could continue her flight.
After arriving in Uganda, Annet had a very difficult time settling into her new environment. While some neighbors did their best to help her, she was sick and remained traumatized from her journey. Her daughter was also very sick. She started thinking about suicide or going back to her home in South Sudan.
Annet’s healing began when she met Grace. “Grace asked me how I was doing, and I started crying. I told her there was no future for my children here, and we are always hungry. My daughter had been sick. I told Grace I might go back,” Annet says. Grace told her that she should first consider that her family is safer than back home in South Sudan, that in Uganda her children can go to school and she can feed them. “Grace told me to be strong. She was very supportive and encouraged me to stay for the sake of my children.” Grace knows what it feels like to be a refugee – she herself went through similar experiences.
Grace made sure that Annet is receiving assistance. She joined a workshop on trauma healing. “It took me about a month until I got better. Soon I adapted to my new community and feel so much more comfortable now,” Annet says.
Today Annet participates in a Women’s group making bricks for a Women’s Center they are planning to build nearby. She also cuts grass to sell in bundles to use on the thatched roofs of shelters. She is supporting other refugees now as a member of her Village Health Team. If you ask Annet, Grace and the other GBV Preventers had a real impact on her life as a refugee. “I will return to South Sudan if there is peace, but I am comfortable here now because of CARE and my friend Grace.”
More Information:
Since the spike in violence in South Sudan in July 2016, there has been a major influx of hundreds of thousands South Sudanese refugees in northwestern Uganda making it the lead refugee hosting country in Africa. There are over one million refugees from South Sudan and DRC in Uganda. Women and children make up more than 80 per cent of the refugee population. Due to the impact of the conflict on communities and households, women often take on the arduous displacement journey to seek refuge in Uganda without male relatives, carrying and caring for many children on the way. CARE Uganda supports refugees with funding from Austrian Development Agency, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ECHO, UNFPA, GAC.
For more on CARE's work in Uganda, click here.