Interviewer Your first-born is 20 years (old), what else do you have to add about him?
Judith We have struggled to pay school fees since my husband died. We had to dig the whole day to pay his school fees and the rent. The first time he did his S6 (1) exams he failed by one point. The second year my boy encouraged me to pay for him again. He did so well that the Government paid for him after that. I thank God for that. If you have your child who is big, you encourage him, and then he will be strong. If you put the spear head strong on the stick then the child will be strong, if you don’t put the spear head strong, then the child will not be strong. I have had bad luck with my husband’s family. They have rejected me and said I am not welcome in their homeland and that I should go back to my own homeland.
Interviewer You talk of the camp (2) as the first place you came to after your husband died, why the camp?
Judith People were moving away from my village. I was staying at my father’s home and then we were removed to the camp which is where I am now.
Interviewer Let me take you back to your husband, is there anything you can tell us about the death of your husband?
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Euan Denholm/IRIN
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Judith My husband, I know it is the ‘sickness of these days’ (3) that killed him. The time we separated from him, it was in 1997. The conflict was so bad, so people were moving about a lot. He got another woman and married her the traditional way but that woman was already sick. By the second year of the marriage the scars of the sickness started coming out in him. The hospital doctors told him that he had ‘the sickness’. He came and told me and said, ‘if you are not sick stay away and keep my children properly’. I was encouraged that he told me and I stayed with a strong heart but I felt bad.
After he told me this I went to the hospital for a blood test and I found that my blood is good. I tested my blood seven times over the years and the doctor says my blood is still good and it gave me strength to keep looking after the children.
I say to the widows, if you see that problems have befallen your husband, you have to stay with a strong heart to keep looking after the children. You have to stay with a strong heart knowing that you will have to stay on your own. Don’t think about getting another husband, that husband might bring you sickness and behave badly with your children. The children will not respect you. If you think that you should get another man, you might bring one who is sick then your children will have lots of problems that will never end.
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[1] Secondary school for pupils aged 17 to 19 years
[2] Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. At the end of 2007, the population of displaced people in Northern Uganda totalled 1,842,500, including 901,000 living in camps and 409,000 in transit areas. Source: OCHA Displaced Populations Report Issue 2
[3] Refers to HIV/AIDS. HIV prevalence rates in Uganda as a whole are 4.1%, with a far higher rate of 11.9% in the north. Source: USAID Uganda Programme