Christine is one of countless women in the district of Gulu, Northern Uganda, who were kidnapped by rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) when they were girls and forced into sexual slavery before making their escape. Christine herself was abducted in 1994 at the age of twelve and returned home in 2004 with three children. In 2021 The Advocacy Project received a request to organize embroidery training for Women in Action for Women (WAW), an association that supports survivors of LRA brutality. Christine was one of ten WAW members who attended the training in July 2021 and produced harrowing stories. Their blocks have been brought to the US, assembled into three powerful advocacy quilts and described on our website. After completing their war stories, Christine and the others asked for another training, which produced embroidered images of iconic breads of Africa. These have also been turned into a quilt and will be used to advocate against hunger.

Christine is keen to continue stitching as a group and hopes to find a market for her embroidery. She certainly needs the money because her life remains incredibly difficult. After returning from captivity Christine gave birth to two more children only to be kicked out of the house by the father. Christine then turned to making bricks but found it too exhausting. She does not earn enough to send her children to school and says that they have become bitter and hostile towards her as a result. Her favorite part about embroidery is that it brings her together with her friends from WAW. “We are like a family,” she says.