A Saving Grace
By Angela Bazydlo | Photo by Edd Cote
UPDATE: Nov. 2009: Grace Akallo
joins United Nations plea to help deprived children worldwide.
Former child soldier Grace Akallo uses the story of her own personal tragedy as a catalyst to fight for what's right.
International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) graduate student Grace Akallo was a new face on campus this fall. Here, this quiet scholar from northern Uganda fits unassumingly into the fabric at Clark University. In a hushed voiced, she answers questions about her past and her future. Her stories are filled with both hope and desperation.
When Akallo was 15 years old, she was abducted by rebels and forced to serve as a child soldier by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). At the time, her country was at war, and she had been attending St. Mary's College, a convent run by Italian nuns in Aboke, northern Uganda. During the day, she and the other children enjoyed the safety and security the school provided. But each day's end brought impending danger as she, along with thousands of other children in Uganda, left their havens to walk to town centers where they would sleep. These "night commuters" traveled under the mask of darkness to avoid being kidnapped by rebels.
Life as a soldier Life as Akallo knew it took an abrupt turn one night in October of 1996: the government soldiers who stood guard at her school dormitories at night didn't show. It was that night that the rebels attacked, capturing her and 138 other girls. Sister Rachelle Fassera, one of the nuns who ran the school, followed the abductors and begged for the girls' release. The rebels freed 109 of them, keeping Akallo and 29 others. They were warned that if any one girl escaped, the other 29 would die. The rebels weren't afraid to follow through with their warnings, she asserted. Akallo herself witnessed the murders of two children who tried to flee.
The abducted girls were moved to southern Sudan, where rebels lived in bases protected by allies of the Sudanese government. There, they were trained to assemble, disassemble, clean and use guns. The LRA and Sudanese government soldiers used them as slave labor, and they were forced to serve as "wives" to senior LRA commanders. They were brainwashed, beaten and forced to abduct and kill others.
After enduring seven long months of captivity, Akallo managed to escape during an attack on an LRA outpost by Ugandan soldiers. She spent days eating leaves and hiding in the bush. She and eight others found a group of villagers who cared for them and connected them with the Ugandan army. They led her home.
Driving change
Akallo returned to St. Mary's to finish secondary school. She attended Uganda Christian University, and eventually transferred to Gordon College near Boston, where she studied communications.
Once in the United States, Akallo became involved with Amnesty International. Her story was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in the Washington Post and on CNN. In June of 2007, she co-authored a book with Faith J. H. McDonnell titled "Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children." Akallo admits that she didn't readily agree to collaborate on the book, however, she says, "I wrote it purposely because I wanted the situation to be known and stopped. That's what was driving me."
Akallo routinely travels to Washington and to the United Nations to speak on behalf of World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization that has counseled, rehabilitated and reconciled more than 15,000 formerly abducted child soldiers with their families and communities. She schedules personal meetings with lawmakers and gives speeches to upwards of 600 people at a time, urging them to do what they can to stop the war in northern Uganda in which more than 30,000 children have been abducted, held in captivity and forced to fight in the LRA.
Akallo has testified twice on Capitol Hill. She presses members of Congress, the Administration, and international leaders to use their political influence to compel the Government of Sudan to stop supporting the LRA. She encourages U.S. leaders to mobilize the international community to put global pressure on combatants to protect children and end the conflict. She also asks that the government provide more resources and humanitarian assistance to help those people suffering because of the conflict.
Akallo says she is met with agreement (about the severity and importance of the child soldier issue) and sympathy following her speaking engagements. Agreement is nice, but she knows action is what is needed to end the war.
A better way
Akallo's desire to pursue a degree in international development led her to Clark.
This fall, she has been busy balancing her course work and parenthood (she has a one-year-old son Jonathan) with her lobbying activities. And it's clear she's found a home in Clark's program.
"In IDCE, students want to understand a better way to do things," she says. "Americans are open to everything to try to understand what is going on."
On campus, she is encouraged to see a generation of young people who are very active in various causes, and who are interested in making a difference in the world.
"Maybe young people have a different way of leadership; they're interested in changing what's really wrong—hope for something different," she says.
While Akallo agrees that hearing her own story might inspire her peers, she is not overly eager to shine a spotlight on herself on campus.
"I think my story inspires different people," she says shyly. "People have different experiences that could inspire others. Most (of my fellow students) have interesting stories of their own."
Even though Akallo can see the difference she alone is making by taking her personal story to Capitol Hill, she is eager to work with others who have different talents and experiences so that she can learn and be better equipped to implement positive changes in the world.
"Clark is filled with people who are ready to do something, to make a change," she says.
Yes, it's true. And it's obvious that at Clark, Grace Akallo fits right in.
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