Anne-Marie - Child-headed household

Anne-Marie is fourteen. She is responsible for feeding and caring for two younger brothers and two sisters.

They all live in a hut in one of the many camps established for internally displaced people in northern Uganda’s Pader District. Anne-Marie cooks and cleans, ensures that they are all bathed daily, and vigilantly manages the ration stock of her household.

Anne-Marie rarely, if ever, leaves the location of her hut just in case someone steals the food rations they receive at the camp. This means that she is unable to escort her younger brothers and sisters to school, and it certainly means she cannot go to school herself. Sometimes Anne-Marie is beaten by men in the camp for not responding to their advances.

Uganda’s long and violent civil war has left a huge proportion of the population displaced and forced to live in makeshift camps, in Pader where Anne-Marie lives, 60% of the population lives in these camps. While adults try and re-establish their communities, children like Anne-Marie, are often left unaccompanied and vulnerable to abuse. Thousands of children were abducted to serve as soldiers and many more have been orphaned or separated from their families by the conflict. War Child’s work in Uganda is improving the health, security and prospects of these children who have suffered the most because of the war.

War Child have helped to form child care and protection committees throughout the camps. Committee members have been trained and actively monitor the situation of unaccompanied children like Anne-Marie and her brothers and sisters, minimizing the risks they face.

War Child has also fitted sturdy doors to Anne-Marie’s hut. She is now more confident about leaving it to fetch food rations and meet other people. She recently found an aunt who now stays over with her most evenings and helps out with the other children. Her aunt has other friends in the camp who also keep an eye out for Anne-Marie and her brothers and sisters.

Since War Child’s work began in Pader Anne-Marie says “I feel much safer and have not been beaten”.

War Child has also provided school books and materials for Anne-Marie, her brothers and sisters, helped get them into school, and whenever one of them falls ill War Child are able to refer them to one of the health organisations the charity works with.

War Child’s long term programme in northern Uganda aims to support the process through which children like Anne-Marie can return to their communities, be re-united with their families and attend school. Anne-Marie is taking the first steps in this process.

War Child looks forward to a world in which the lives of children are no longer torn apart by war.