Patricia - Abuse, Transformation and Empowerment

Sports Outreach Ministry Uganda (SOM) works in northern Uganda, ministering in a number of ways to the Acholi people. Their lives were turned upside down by the 20-year civil war. Millions of people lived in unimaginable suffering in Internally Displaced Persons camps. When the war ended, they were released and had to go back to their original home communities and start over, hacking out an existence from the bush. It is a difficult life.

One of the many ways SOM ministers to share the Gospel and alleviate suffering is by reaching out to girls who have been raped. Unfortunately, rape is very prevalent in this culture. The work of Christine’s House (in partnership with Freedom 4/24), Sports Outreach Polytechnic School and Nicky’s village residences provide a multi-year program to help take these girls from trauma and suffering to wholeness and a chance at life. (Please see our Women’s Empowerment Ministry Overview for additional details)

This is the story of Patricia, a young woman whose life has been transformed through the work of SOM’s programs. She is one of 20-40 terribly traumatized girls we help each year.

Patricia lived with her family in Angaba village near the town of Gulu. In late 2017, Patricia was 16 years old. One Sunday morning, she headed out to the woods to collect firewood and had to take a bushy path that went through her neighbor’s compound. The son of the neighbor hailed her and asked her to come over to his house. He was much older than her. An unsuspecting Patricia went into the house, thinking he had something important to tell her. Once she entered, he locked the door, held her by the neck and threatened to kill her if she made a sound or told anyone of what was about to go down. He defiled her sent her off.

Scared for her life, Patricia kept quiet about her abuse, afraid that this man would kill her if she reported anything from that fateful morning.

Patricia didn’t know what being pregnant meant or what the signs were. Her mother, on the other hand, knew and noticed some of the signs of pregnancy when her daughter started acting and feeling different. When confronted about it, Patricia didn’t have a clue what might be wrong. She did however, open up to her mother about her traumatic rape and was later taken for a pregnancy test. It came back positive.

Thankfully, Patricia’s family reported her abuser to local authorities. He was arrested and sentenced to jail for rape. Normally, the first thing we do when we begin to help a traumatized girl is to identify the rapist and report them, and in this case it was already done. But Patricia was 16, pregnant, terrified and traumatized.

Patricia’s mother found out about Christine’s house from her fellow community members. She brought her daughter’s case to us and we assessed the case. The conditions of her case suited the criteria followed by our recruiters. After getting the information we needed, Patricia was accepted at Christine’s house.

We did both spiritual and psychosocial counseling (trauma) counseling while she was with us. Some of the most meaningful conversations with her were about self-forgiveness and accepting herself the way she was. It helped us understand how to help her during her stay at the house. As we shared scripture with her, she particularly liked Psalm 23 and Proverbs 3:5-6.

We taught her knitting, bakery, agriculture and forgiveness. During one of the group counseling sessions, Patricia heard the testimony of one the former occupants of the house and was so moved that she decided to give her life to Christ.

For the birth of her baby, we took Patricia to Gulu Referral Regional Hospital. It is of the best hospitals in Gulu. She was welcomed to the private wing, which offers much more convenient and better services. The private wing is quite costly, but it guarantees safer results. She had a caesarian birth (C-section) because she was unable to push the baby naturally. We were with her through the whole birth experience. On September 26, 2018, Patricia gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, Jordan!

She had severe pain from her C-section scar for two weeks and took about a month to recover.

Patricia is a quiet girl, but she was involved actively in all the activities at the House as she recovered. She spent much time learning how to be a good mother and knitting.

The idea of her going back into her home community did not sound good to Patricia. She was scared of going back to settle in the community. She had faced many challenges there, and she wouldn’t have access to some of the facilities she had at Christine’s house. We helped her to prepare for her return in order to allay some of her fears. We visited her family to check on the environment to which she would be returning. We talked to her parents about how to care for the baby and the new mother. It was difficult for Patricia to adjust and come to terms with going back home but at the end of it all, she knew that home was where she was supposed to be.

When Patricia went back home, she cared for her baby and helped her mother with household chores. She began to do small scale farming and baking (both of which she learned while at Christine’s House.) We follow up with each girl two months after their return home, and we were encouraged to learn of these positive developments.

During the follow up visit, however, we found out that there was a large conflict between Patricia’s family and the family of her abuser. His family wasn’t pleased that Patricia’s family had taken their son to the authorities without consulting them first. They believed the issue could have been resolved through peace talks. Unfortunately, the conflicts were so difficult that Patricia’s family decided they must leave their village, land and home to seek a new place to live. This took a toll on Patricia’s mental and physical health.

The first graduating class from Sports Outreach Polytechnic School!

In early 2019, during the family’s transition from one village to another, we took Patricia back to Christine’s House for a short time to help her deal with the situation. This is how Patricia got a chance to join the Sports Outreach Polytechnic Schoo,l, our vocational school.

Normally, our year-long residential vocational program costs several hundred dollars. Due to the severity of Patricia’s case, the ministry contributed to Patricia’s fees for the vocational program and her family only had to buy the needed supplies for the tailoring (sewing) program.

In February 2019, Patricia and Jordan moved into one of the houses in Nicky’s village, along with 15 other girls in the vocational program. She started learning how to sew, taking lessons and practicing every day. She also received ongoing counseling by the staff of the vocational school and Christine’s house.

Among Patricia’s classmates in the vocational program were some girls who had also been at Christine’s House with her, and also other single mothers for whom vocational training was their first interaction with SOM.

Patricia reports that life in the transition village was really good for her and Jordan. There was peace and comfort as she had all she needed. She worked together with the other girls in the program to prepare meals, clean the compound and other necessary things of life. As they worked and lived together, Patricia and the other girls became friends and encouragers of each other.

Patricia completed her course on November 29, 2019 and went back home. She was provided with a sewing machine as she finished.

She has already established a small sewing business in the market in her community to earn money to support her, Jordan and her family. Her life has been transformed from a traumatized, pregnant 16-year-old looking at a life of abject poverty to a 19-year-old young mother with a job skill, a small business and hope for the future. And by the way, she knows Christ as her savior!

Patricia’s family was blessed and encouraged by the support that their daughter received throughout her trauma and recovery over two years. They were so grateful and thankful to SOM and to God for the help we were able to provide.

As a final note, toward the end of Patricia’s time in the vocational program, her mother surrendered her life to Christ.