Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Former child soldier escaped Lord's Resistance Army to quarry rock for less than $US1 a day

Lateline
By Alexandra Fisher
Updated Wed at 12:23pm


Photo: "I ran some distance, the blood was flowing," says Charles Adoke, who fled the Lord's Resistance Army in which he was
a child soldier. (ABC News: Alexandra Fisher)

1-10 Gallery: Workers of the Acholi Quarter and its stone quarries
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/gallery-of-the-acholi-quarter-and-its-stone-quarries/6383954

Map: Uganda .. http://maps.google.com/?q=1,32(Uganda)&z=5

Former child soldiers are among thousands of Ugandans forced to risk life and limb quarrying stone in the capital Kampala for less than $US1 per day.

Charles Adoke is one of them. Abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as a child soldier, he escaped back to
his village during a gun battle between the rebels and the Ugandan army and witnessed his family being burned to death.

"They hit me here with a bullet on my leg ... I ran not knowing I was shot," he said.

"I'm crushing the gravel and if I get the money I sometimes give it to my mum and I try to save for my education."
Ben, 7-year-old quarry worker

"I ran some distance. The blood was flowing."

Mr Adoke is among thousands of workers whose lives have been shattered by one of Africa's bloodiest wars in northern Uganda.

More than 11,000 Acholi people from northern Uganda fled to Kampala over the two decades the LRA rebels terrorised their homeland.

They made new lives in makeshift dwellings, a slum today known as Acholi Quarter.

The slum's quarries are one of the main sources of income for those internally displaced by the conflict.

Working in a Kireka stone quarry in Acholi, Mr Adoke is haunted by the memory of LRA rebels locking his mother and sister inside their hut and setting the village on fire.

Video: The child workers risking life and limb for a dollar a day (Lateline)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/the-child-workers-risking-life-and-limb-for-a/6393064

"They couldn't even come out and my mother by then was not even actually energetic enough to break [out of] the house," he said.

"They were just burned inside the house."

The fear of death still looms every day for Mr Adoke, who says falling rocks often crush workers.

"Recently one of my friends was covered with the stone here," he said.

"The stone hit him then we couldn't get him quickly so by the time we removed him, he died immediately. So we removed him as a dead body."

'I want to study. I have no money. I have no dad.'

Seven-year-old Ben wields his hammer with both hands, his fingers covered in white dust, his forehead in beads of sweat.

Dozens of children labour in the quarries, facing another day in the pressing heat to help feed their families.

"I want to study. I have no money, I have no dad," Ben said.

"I'm crushing the gravel and if I get the money I sometimes give it to my mum and I try to save for my education."

Local NGO, I Live Again Uganda, estimates that 80 per cent of the displaced Acholi people have worked in the quarry at some point.

"We have people who are former child soldiers, we have people who have seen their children killed, and we
have other people who have seen their family and community members abducted," director Benson Ocen said.

"They don't feel any good, but that's the only option they have. They have to do work that's more hand-to-mouth because that's the way they're living."


Photo: Local NGO I Live Again Uganda says many children born in the Acholi Quarter are
disconnected from their homeland's culture (ABC News: Alexandra Fisher)

Workers maintain hope despite grim conditions

I Live Again Uganda provides trauma counselling, job and education training and helps resettle families that want to return to their village in northern Uganda.

Mr Ocen said the quarry's poor conditions affected many workers, who earned less than a dollar a day.

"They have no gloves, no helmet. They just go there in their bare hands as they break the stone. We have clients who have lost their hands," he said.

"They cough because they inhaled this dust. They have no protection that covers their mouth."

But despite their crushing prospects, many believe they will one day make it home.

"My calling is to be an engineer because I have liked mathematics since I was a young person," Mr Adoke said.

"Also the calling of the Lord is also in my heart ... because when you believe in the Lord anything will be possible."


Photo: At a local bar inside the Acholi Quarter people drink homebrewed millet beer from long
reusable straws. (ABC News: Alexandra Fisher)



First posted Tue at 4:56pm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/former-child-soldier-escaped-lra-to-work-kampala-quarry/6381282

The brutality of man.

See also:

The Weeping Time
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=105163814

Many thousands of words in there. [.. thousands of here ..]

25 Prospectors work at the open-pit Djoubissi gold mine, north of Bambari, on April 24, 2014. (/Emmanue Braun/Reuters)

[.. oops .. looks i may have stuffed the caption on that one .. the combination in the BI link below is more fitting ]

[ Giant Central African Gold Mine Is Just A Step Away From Genocide, And We've Got The Pictures To Prove It
Daniel Flynn, Reuters Aug. 5, 2014, 2:40 PM .. bit ..

A ceasefire signed last week in the capital of neighboring Congo Republic raised hopes of an end to the conflict. But many fear
local warlords on both sides will resist attempts to break their grip over resources, especially diamond and gold mines.
http://www.businessinsider.com/gold-diamonds-feed-central-african-religious-violence-2014-8
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=109420133

Boko Haram’s Mass Kidnappings Are Spreading
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=110048578