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Nancy Auma’s Amazing Story of Courage

The senseless horror of what happened to Ugandan seven-year-old Nancy Auma is a story that inspires outrage and shock.

It was 1999 and the brutal rebel war in Uganda was in its 10th year. Innocent children were being adducted and turned into weapons of war. Millions of families had been displaced from their villages to the relative safety of urban centres. A hallmark of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s resistance Army (LRA) was to forcibly recruit children into his army and adduct women and girls as sex slaves. Those who failed to comply were mutilated with machetes. Ten’s of thousands of women and children were left with the physical and emotional scars of LRA’s reign of terror.

There was no reason for Nancy Auma to be harmed as she walked to her aunt’s house that day in 1999, but en route she was forcibly abducted. The rebels kept Nancy captive but when she became too weak to keep up with their assaults, they ordered another abducted child rebel to mutilate her. In fear for his own life, that poor child cut off Nancy’s lips, nose and ears. Nancy was then released to a life of shame and despair.

It took 10 more years to force the rebels out of Uganda into neighbouring Sudan, DR Congo, but the battle to rebuild the lives and dignity of the Nancy Auma, and thousands like her, goes on.

What TEAR Fund is Doing to Help

Together with Watoto, TEAR Fund NZ has established the Surgical Intervention Project in Uganda. Its purpose is to restore the lives of women, children, former child soldiers and other victims who have suffered facial mutilations. This is being achieved through sophisticated surgical procedures performed by specialised international surgical teams, Ugandan health professionals and through trauma counselling.

In 2008, Nancy became part of our programme. At 17, Nancy’s experiences had left her physically, emotionally and spiritually scarred. Her facial disfigurement caused her to walk with her head down, ashamed and embarrassed. Thanks to generous donations and support, Nancy has begun a series of reconstructive surgeries. She is awaiting just two more surgeries to restore her lips and ears following successful surgery to reconstruct her nose. In addition to her facial transformations, Nancy has given her life to Christ, and you can already see the promise and hope of a beautiful young 18-year-old woman beginning to shine within her.

What You Can Do to Help

We hope to assist with funding 70 surgeries in the next 18 months, but we need your assistance to achieve this. Don’t underestimate the value of what your donation can achieve in the lives of these innocent victims.

Donate Today and restore dignity to Ugandan war victims like Nancy.

Our Impact

TearFund measures success by both social and financial returns.

• 24 profitable businesses in 6 countries
• Serving over 36 million low-income customers worldwide
• Providing over 9,000 paying jobs
• 4x leverage for every dollar invested