"Girl Soldier-- A story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children" was shocking and unbelievable. It's a story that I wouldn't have read if it hadn't been true, due to the gruesome horrors described in it. It wasn't an enjoyable read, but it was educating. More than 30,000 children have been been kidnapped and forced into being soldiers in Uganda--forced to carry a machine gun--forced to kill family members and friends--forced to march long ways with little or nothing to eat, but what they are able to scavage for themselves--forced to become hard and inhuman in order to survive.
The book weaves together Grace Akallo's story--kidnapped at age 15, and forced to endure savagery, starvation, rape, abuse and other horrors--with Faith McDonnell's historical and spiritual insights on Uganda's wars over the past 30 years--to tell the story of Uganda's forgotten children. It is a story we all need to know, because these are children just like ours, and their story deserves to be heard, and it demands a response. How can we sit comfortably in our American homes and ignore the suffering of these little ones? Even though the book was written in 2007, and things may be some different in Uganda now, the children who were kidnapped, and their displaced, refugee families will never be the same. The country will take years and years to recover.
"For most of us, the enourmous monolith of the suffering of Africa is impossible to imagine, much less enter into. This book represents a significant door." Michael Card
"Girl Soldier is not fiction, yet that fact becomes harder to believe with every page we turn. How did we not know about this sooner? Why are we not doing more?. . ." Adrian Bradbury
"The world has ignored these innocent children for decades as the turmoil in Uganda has escalated into one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises..." Rev. Robert W. Duncan
If you'd like to read more you can check out these websites:
http://Kabiza.com/Lira-children-Kony-rebels.htm
www.worldvision/content.nsf/learn/globalissues-uganda
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