Help GBV Survivors in Uganda Learn to Tailor

This report is going to 15 friends who have donated $1,997 to Women in Action for Women (WAW) a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP). WAW will use the funds to launch a tailoring business.

We begin with a heartfelt thank you and an apology for the delay in submitting this first report. WAW hopes to get started this coming summer. We deemed it best to delay our first report until the project gets off the ground.

All of this has changed following a tragic accident that has claimed the life of Mary, one of the WAW founding members. Mary's is the face that you see when you open this appeal - calm and confident - and her passing has come as a major shock to her friends in Uganda and our own AP team here in the US.

We offer this report as a tribute to Mary and look forward to following up with news about the appeal in three months.

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Mary, aged 39, was a mother of five who used embroidery and stitching to build a new life after escaping from the Lord’s Resistance Army, one of Africa’s most brutal rebel groups. She was found dead with one of her sons in their one-room house in Gulu shortly before Christmas. A second son survived after being rushed to hospital.

The cause of their death was C02 poisoning. According to the authorities, Mary put maize on the kitchen stove to boil the night before and went to sleep with the windows closed. She was found on the floor, suggesting that she had awoken but collapsed. She was buried next to her son at her father’s home in Palaro.

Mary’s passing has devastated her small circle of friends in Gulu who - like Mary - were forced into sexual slavery by LRA rebels while in their teens and emerged from captivity to form WAW.

AP has partnered with WAW since 2021 and helped members channel their enthusiasm for stitching and embroidery. Mary had always dreamed of launching a tailoring business and her friends find it bitterly ironic that she will not live to see her dream fulfilled after a life of suffering.

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Mary’s childhood was cut short at the age of nine when LRA rebels stormed through her village during a 1998 raid, seizing boys and girls. She told her story in 2021 to Anna, an AP Peace Fellow, and illustrated it with a vivid story for the Ugandan War Survivors Quilt, a collection of deeply disturbing images.

Once in captivity, Mary was given to an LRA soldier who raped her and beat her for trying to resist. “He would beat all the women in his home any time one person made a mistake,” Mary recalled. “His older women made me wash clothes for their children and beat me. The worst was when the man beat/flogged me with 150 strokes of his cane. When I escaped in 2001, I was told that the man looked for me so that he could kill me for escaping. God saved me and he never found me or the other 2 women I escaped with.”

Mary returned to Palaro village in 2001 aged 12. Her father had re-married and she was taken in by her aunt. Mary was denied the chance to resume school but was accepted by the Gulu Support the Children Organization (GUSCO), a reception center for abducted children set up by parents. It was here that Mary was trained to make bags and caught the stitching bug.

In time Mary married another former LRA prisoner and bore five children. But the relationship turned sour and she was abandoned by her husband, who was later arrested and jailed. Mary loved tailoring and began making bags for another local organization but the pandemic ended her hopes of opening a small business, as it did for many other LRA survivors.

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Membership of WAW brought deep friendships and provided an outlet for Mary’s stitching skills.

After contributing to the war stories quilt, Mary stitched a quirky story about the pandemic showing a needle in hot pursuit of the Coronavirus. Vaccinations were not reaching Uganda at the time, but Mary’s cheerful image lifted the spirits of WAW team members, who printed her needle on tee shirts and joined a vaccination campaign by the Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) to accompany vulnerable villagers to health centers. Mary is seen in the top photo wearing her own design.

The WAW Covid stories were assembled into a quilt by Joan, an American quilter, exhibited at the Textile Museum in Washington, and profiled in a catalogue.

Mary has contributed to other WAW stitching initiatives, including an adventuresome quilt about African breads (photo) and butterfly tea towels that can be purchased here. Most recently she made embroidered butterflies and birds for an upcoming Sister Artists quilt challenge, which will unite the WAW artists in Uganda with almost 40 art quilters in the US, Canada and Africa.

One of the quilters, Colleen in Wisconsin, recently assembled Mary’s butterflies and described the news of her death as “quite devastating.” Colleen’s quilt can be seen below in the photo and will be displayed with the 36 other Sister Artists quilts at the Textile Museum in Washington DC before being auctioned.

WAW’s stitching plans have kept pace with the skills of its members and the tailoring business is the logical next step. The GlobalGiving appeal (which features Msry in the lead photo) was launched with help from Julia, a 2024 Peace Fellow who is studying for an MA at George Washington University. The money will be added to the proceeds from the upcoming Sister Artists auction of quilts

WAW and AP have also agreed to cover the cost of training for Mary’s 16 year-old son, who has dropped out of school. Anyone wishing to help is invited to purchase tea towels or bid for a Sister Artists quilt in June.

We are also looking for a graduate student who can follow Anna and Julia to Uganda and help launch the tailoring business in June. Interested students should apply through this page.

Once again, we apologize for the delay in reporting back and wish you a productive new year. Thank you again for your support and understanding.

The WAW and AP teams.