Filmed inside the war zone of northern Uganda over a period of three years, CHILDREN OF WAR is a unique and incandescent documentary which captures the story of a group of former child soldiers as they undergo a process of emotional and spiritual healing while in a rehabilitation center.
AKULU'S STORY
Abducted in 2001 at the age of ten from her home in the forest, Akulu was forced to walk over 200 kilometers with little food and water to southern Sudan. Along the way, she witnessed many of her friends being left behind to die. Others were brutally killed to serve as an example to her and the abducted children not to escape. Onvce in Sudan, she was given military training, then awarded to the Chief Priest of the Lord's Resistance Army as a "wife," or sex-slave. The Chief Priest was old enough to be her grandfather. After five years of being forced to obey the Chief Priest's every command, and forced to take part in firefights and looting operations against the Uganda government Army, a miraculous moment of escape arrived for Akulu. One of the rules stipulated by the Chief Priest was that if she ever found a turtle, she must kill it. She was told that by doing so she would be able to run fast when attacked by government soldiers. "One day I discovered a turtle while we were on the way for a military operation," Akulu recounts. "I began the work of
killing it, while also secretly waiting for the rest of our group to walk ahead of me. The grasses were very high and when everyone disappeared in them, I ran away as fast as I could. I ran for days until I safely reached a government base. That turtle, by showing itself and sacrificing its life, had saved me." After two weeks of interrogation by the Ugandan government army, Akulu was handed over to the Rachele Rehabilitation Center. From over five years as a child soldier and sex slave, she was burdened by nearly all of the symptoms of trauma -- fear, guilt, mistrust, anger, nightmares, and low self-esteem. Akulu spent six months at the rehabilitation center, and was counseled until the full breathe of her story was heard and worked through. In 2007, she was taken home. She was reunited with her mother, but discovered her father had died during her time away. She has since returned to school, and hopes to one day have enough money to start her own business as a seamstress.