'Today you will understand': Stories from Women and Girls in Northern Uganda

OCHA, in collaboration with IRIN, presents a series of 16 personal stories of women and girls affected by the armed conflict in Northern Uganda between government forces and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Each story is accompanied by an audio recording of the woman’s own words.

A woman sits by the fireplace in her hut in Oromi camp in Kitgum District, northern Uganda, 15 May 2007. Women and girls in the camps in northern Uganda also face sexual violence and exploitation by the very soldiers who are supposed to protect them. [Photo: IRIN]

About the stories

’Today you will understand’ is a unique collection of true stories related via radio interviews conducted jointly by IRIN’s radio project in northern Uganda and members of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers’ Association.

The women and girls tell of being raped, shot, disabled, displaced, abused and enslaved, of witnessing their loved ones being killed in front of them, and being burdened with the responsibility of raising their children alone in abject poverty.

Transcribed from the audio testimonies, the women’s voices in this booklet come through with the starkness and intimacy they carried in the original radio interviews.
IRIN has worked in northern Uganda for the past year, seeking to provide humanitarian information in support of the peace process to local communities and at the same time to enable the voices of local people to be heard by as wide an audience as possible.

FEMRITE coordinator Hilda Twongyeirwe, said: “Sharing and publishing these stories is one way of raising awareness about the atrocities of war and making the world reflect more closely on what happens in armed conflict.” IRIN Radio’s work in Uganda has been funded by the German government.