Telling the ECSA Story

STORY 1: She didn’t have much but lost it all: the heartbreaking story of a conflict survivor in Ethiopia It is dark in Almaz’s small hut. Her home is sparsely furnished with a few cupboards and one bed on which she is sitting. She looks fragile, with her back bent and her right hand covering her face as she is trying to hide her tears. She has dark circles under her eyes. Her clothes are ripped. Her voice breaks as she is bringing up memories of the day her life changed  dramatically. The roof of her house still has cracks from the attack that forced her and her family to flee a few months ago. Just on the opposite side of her home, hundreds of temporary bamboo houses are lined up as Chirigu, her village, became one of the biggest displacement camps in southern Ethiopia. Almaz’s story in their own words: It was evening when all of the sudden we heard gunshots and people screaming. Me and my family were at home. We didn’t know what was going on in the village. We looked outside

Stella Mindraa, a Gender Based Violence Response Officer for CARE in Torit with 17 year old Mary* at a Safe Shelter in Torit. Mary ran away from home after she was beaten by her brother after refusing a forced marriage. © Joseph Scott/CARE “I felt like it was better to die than marry someone I didn’t know,” says 17 year old Mary (not real name)* from Torit in South Sudan. This is the pain Mary feels six months after she was nearly forced by her family to marry a stranger. Mary came to know of the plan one Saturday afternoon when she was r eturning from visiting her relatives in town. Inside the house, seated on one of the family’s home-made wooden chairs was an elderly man she had never seen before. After a while, Mary’s brother and mother joined her and told her that they had ‘important business to discuss’. “I wasn’t so sure what was happening,” says Mary. “I started to think that I had done something dreadful.”  The old man told the stunned teenager that he was ther

She holds her gaze when she looks at me. Her eyes cannot lie. She is a survivor, still fighting to overcome the trauma. We meet in a refugee camp in Uganda. I am advised by our psycho-social officer not to ask about the assault, so I don’t. But she tells me she was forced to flee from DR Congo, after being raped by rebels. She tells me the world must know what she has been through. On her lap sits her daughter. A living proof of the atrocity. Here is the story of Asha* (32), through her own words. “My husband and I were attacked by rebels in the forest. They killed him, right before my eyes. I was given no time to grieve. Before I knew it, some of them came toward me and pushed me deeper into the forest. They tied my eyes with a piece of clothing. Then, four men started raping me. They raped me, and they beat me with their guns. Over and over again. When they finally stopped, I managed to escape. I started to run. I ran for my life, until some people from my village found

By Joseph Scott, Communications and Policy Coordinator Thirty five year old Jane* from Torit in South Sudan says she doesn’t remember a day when she was happy in her marriage. For the past 10 years, her marriage has been shrouded by abuse and violence, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars. “My husband was beating me almost every day,” says the mother of six. “He didn’t want me to ask for money to buy food but he would expect to have dinner when he returned from work.” The children were not spared from the violence. They were being whipped almost every day, which made them run away from home when he was around. “He was beating them for no reason. One day I protested and he started beating me as well. I knew if I stayed home he wouldn’t stop, so I decided  to go to church for prayers. But when the prayers were finished, I was afraid to go back home,” says Jane. A helping hand In the church, one member of her congregation saw that something was