Irene stands strong in front of her home in northern Uganda. She is 42 and a mother of nine children. She’s proud of her land which is abundant with maize and vegetables.
“My life is much better now,” soft-spoken Irene says, looking across at her land. “Because I feel empowered, I have no more fear”.
Then Irene casts her eyes down. She is about to recount her very personal story, one of horrific abuse.
“It is important I tell my story. I want other women to know that there is help for them too.”
In 2006 at the end of the 20-year war, Irene lost her husband. It had devastated northern Uganda, resulting in the death of over 100,000 people, millions of internal displacements and the systematic abuse of women and children.
Like thousands of people, she moved with her five children from a camp in Pabbo County in Amuru District and ended up in Te-Okutu village, where she claimed 90 acres of land.
Farming and raising her young children on her own was hard and she started a new relationship. He moved into Irene’s house and although it was Irene’s claimed land, they jointly farmed it. They had four children together.
But then the abuse started.
“He started to complain that he had to take care of my late husband’s children. He wanted them to go back to our original home where we lived during the war”. But Irene refused. “It was my responsibility to take care of them.”
As things deteriorated, her partner started to reject even his own children. He insisted that any food from the land should only be for him.
“He separated the food. He would buy meat and ask me to cook it and he would eat it alone. Every time I tried giving the same food to the children, he would throw it on the ground and step on it.”
The situation got worse over the following months. One day he gathered all the clothes and utensils in the hut and set it ablaze. Everything she owned was destroyed.
Irene went to the local leaders who told her as this was a criminal offence she had to go to the police. But the police demanded money before they would pursue a case. Irene had no money as everything was gone.
When Irene returned to the village her partner stopped her from entering the hut because she had reported him. He chased Irene and the children away, and they sought refuge with neighbours.
To earn enough to feed the children Irene worked tending her neighbours’ gardens. They had nothing, not even a change of clothes.“When it rained, I would make the children take off their clothes off so they wouldn’t get wet, and when it stopped raining the children would put their clothes back on.”
“I went back to the village leaders and said I could not bear the situation. They mobilised the community to chase him from the village but he told them he was not going anywhere.”
Irene had nothing to feed the children with. She ran away, but after a few days decided to take her chances and turn back. That day, her partner attacked and beat her until she was unconscious.
“The children kept pouring cans of water on me until I regained consciousness. When I woke up, I found I was stripped naked. I was dizzy and had a lot of pain because he had hit the back of my head.”
The village leaders told her they could not help and advised that she should leave. “My partner told me to pack my things and leave with all my children. I still refused. Then he told me he was going to do something that would never be wiped away from my memory.”
“Afterwards I could not walk with the pain. Because of the beatings and the trauma, I couldn’t sleep at night. I reached the point where I stopped eating.” Irene did not believe she would survive the wounds that he inflicted on her.
She slowly started to recover and looked for help. A neighbour told her about the ActionAid shelter in Amuru.
“I was so dirty with torn clothes. The baby was naked as everything was burnt in the house. The welcome they gave to me was great. They gave me food and clothes, and my child got clothes. I started feeling love.”
Irene and her baby stayed at the shelter for a week where she got counselling and advice from ActionAid’s legal advisor. Staff took her to hospital where her wounds were treated.
Slowly Irene started to get better. Thanks to support from ActionAid, eventually Irene’s partner was arrested and charged. “When they arrested him, I got relief I never had.” He was given a sentence of three and a half years.
In September 2023 he was released and arrived in the village. Irene said, “I refused to welcome him back. I had told court he should never come back, so when he came I chased him away.” He is now living nearby at the local trading station.
“I feel pain again when I see him, and my desire is he leaves this community. Sometimes I keep thinking what if he comes and repeats the same violence again.”
But the difference is Irene feels stronger now. “ActionAid has given me peace of mind. I sleep without fear.”
Recently a wealthy man in the community tried to grab her land and the land of other widows around. “This was open land after the war. I was among the first people who came here and got land. But the culture is that women should not own land, and the man wants control. In this community you have people with money who come with buyers and surveyors. They don’t listen to the poor person.”
Irene reported the latest case to ActionAid and it is going to court.
“I want other women to know that there is help for them too. Now I do my own stuff without any man having an influence. I make my own decisions. I am free from violence. I am in charge of my children and taking care of them.
“It can be very challenging supporting women who have gone through grievous assault. You feel the pain that the survivor has gone through, but you are also very grateful at the end of the day that you see the women smile,” says Joy Apili, Psychosocial Support Officer at the shelter in Amuru.
The ActionAid women’s shelter in Amuru was established in 2012 to provide comprehensive gender-based violence prevention and response services to survivors. It uses a holistic and multi-dimensional approach.
“Through funding from Ireland, ActionAid Uganda has been providing prevention and response services to survivors of gender-based violence in Gulu. We coordinate and collaborate with all stakeholders on the referral pathway in Amuru district, directly supervised by the District Community Development Officer (DCDO).”
Survivors are given temporary accommodation, counselling and psychosocial support, and legal aid and representation in court. In the last four years, 360 survivors of gender-based violence have been supported in Amuru by ActionAid and resettled and reintegrated back to their communities. Psychosocial support was provided to 1,544 people.
30 male champions and 53 cultural and religious leaders have been trained to promote change among men in the community about women and girls’ rights. And ActionAid is also working on raising awareness about gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies, women’s land rights and child marriage. Over 20,000 people have been reached on these issues since 2019.
Even though the war has been over for many years, the effects are still being felt. No woman or child should suffer the abuse that Irene and her children experienced. This is why we run shelters like the one in Amuru, to stop the cycle.
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