Ugandans: Education is key

Ugandans Peace Lorna and Jacob Acaye (pictured) joined volunteers from the nonprofit organization Invisible Children Inc. at Chico State Monday evening (April 19) to raise awareness about their country’s 24-year-long war and the work to rebuild the region through education.

Acaye was just 11 years old when he was abducted and forced to become a soldier for the Lord’s Resistance Army, a northern Uganda rebel group accused of many human-rights atrocities. He was there for a short time, escaping the night before he was scheduled to start fighting in Sudan.

A scholarship from Invisible Children paid for Acaye, now 19, to attend high school in Uganda, where students are required to pay for secondary education. He will begin law school in the fall. Lorna, 23, works for the organization as an education assistant and mentor working with former child soldiers and other Ugandan youths. Both were in California to stress the importance of rebuilding education.

“No one has been taking care of the schools and they are dilapidated,” Lorna said. “We want to bring them back.”