The story of Jennifer Anyayo
On Dec. 24, 2005, Jennifer Anyayo, 15, arrived at Philadelphia International Airport from Gulu, northern Uganda, where she lived and attended school. Accompanied by Abitimo Odongkara, a woman who splits her time between her homes in Philadelphia and Gulu, Jennifer came to the United States for surgery on severe burns she suffered years ago.
Inquirer editorial writer Carolyn Davis and photographer Michael S. Wirtz chronicled her medical treatment and her experience while she was in Philadelphia. The two journalists accompanied Jennifer home to Uganda in June 2007, reporting on return and readjustment to her country.
- » VIDEO: Jennifer's Journey: Going back home
Journey Home
NORTHERN UGANDA - Jennifer Anyayo's reunion with her family would have to wait. First, our taxi driver took us from Entebbe International Airport to Kampala to exchange currency and grab breakfast. We sat down at the pricey Speke Hotel - and that's where Jennifer, 16, first flashed some of the attitude she picked up in America.
Following her journey
Carolyn Davis, an editorial writer for The Inquirer, traveled to Uganda in June 2007 with Jennifer as she returned home after more than a year. Davis blogged about Jennifer's reunion with her family and her country, and about other children who were victims of war in Uganda. Joining her was Inquirer photographer Michael S. Wirtz.
LIVING IN AMERICA
Last year, Carolyn began writing a journal about the experiences of Jennifer as the girl underwent surgery. The diary expanded to encompass the thoughts of Jennifer herself, along with members of her host families in Maryland.
READERS' DIARY
Below are excerpts from a diary by Michael and Jill Zimmer, Inquirer readers from Downingtown who traveled with Abitimo Odongkara back to Gulu, northern Uganda. Abitimo is the Ugandan schoolteacher who accompanied war-scarred teenager Jennifer Anyayo here for surgery as part of The Inquirer's All Join Hands program. The Zimmers are on the board of a new Philadelphia-based nonprofit, Friends of UNIFAT, to raise money for Abitimo's school.
Video
In June 2007, a vastly different Jennifer returned to Uganda. Photographer Michael Wirtz captured her homecoming on video and in photographs.
Slideshow
For more than a year, Inquirer photographer Michael S. Wirtz chronicled Jennifer's life through her medical treatments, new friendships and "adopted" families, and more.
THROUGH THE LENS
A photographer's view
Photographer Michael S. Wirtz chronicles Jennifer's experiences on her arrival in the United States, her surgery on her severe facial burns and her recuperation.
Arrival in Philadelphia, first surgery
Shopping for clothes, Feb. 17, 2006
Post-op office visit, Feb. 22, 2006
Jennifer's second surgery, March 8, 2006
Jennifer at summer camp, July 2006
Shopping for clothes, Feb. 17, 2006
Post-op office visit, Feb. 22, 2006
Jennifer's second surgery, March 8, 2006
Jennifer at summer camp, July 2006
- A school serves as an oasis of hope, with roots reaching all the way to Phila.
- How Uganda's anguish evolved - and why it endures
- A Ugandan child helps restore faith
- Beneath the scars is the will to go on
- Peace in Uganda: A plan to end a conflict
Northern Uganda
The children of war
A 21-year war in northern Uganda has stopped -- for now. In that time, about 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to become soldiers and sex slaves. Untold thousands have died and as many as 1.7 million people have been displaced. Read about the history of the war and the damage it has done to children.
- Slide Show Jennifer Arrives in US
JENNIFER'S FAMILY, HOME
Here is one thing to know about Jennifer Anyayo - or most Acholi people, for that matter. Jennifer is her Christian first name, and Anyayo is her Acholi first name. There are no family last names among the Acholi people.
FINDING UGANDA
Jennifer lives in the town of Gulu, in northern Uganda, where she attends a school operated by Abitimo Odongkara. Her brothers and sisters live with her mother in the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum.
- Editorial: Peace in Uganda
Original Series
That's it. I've had it. I'm fed up with seeing children around the world treated as though they were little more than empty cans to be kicked or crushed.
It was a photograph in yesterday's Inquirer, amplified by a series of photos on the New York Times front page, that pushed me beyond fury.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Jennifer Fund
About $15,000 remains of readers' generous donations for Jennifer. The money, which is being administered by The Inquirer, is being used to purchase land and a house in Gulu, northern Uganda, where Jennifer and her family will live. We will provide more details when the transaction is completed.
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Carolyn Davis is a member of the Inquirer Editorial Board As children and families in Uganda and Sudan's Darfur region wait for peace, and as civilians in Somalia brace for intensified war, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, is making mistakes and enemies.
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Jennifer Anyayo has one more round to go. Then, if the planets are in alignment or God is watching - or if bad men just choose to stop fighting - Jennifer will go home to a land at peace.
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It is time to close the deal, to end the war, to give the children of northern Uganda the most miraculous gift they could get: peace, for the first time in their lives.
- As U.N. envoy, John Bolton could play a key role in stopping a war that targets children, and that is spreading. He speaks in Phila. today.Dear Ambassador Bolton:
Welcome to Philadelphia. I know your time is valuable, so let me get into business right away. The U.N. Security Council has a very real chance to end the 20-year war between a rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army and the government of President Yoweri Museveni in northern Uganda. -
In the last five years, as the United States has dithered, thousands more children in northern Uganda have been kidnapped, raped and killed by the Lord's Resistance Army.
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War's wounds can happen all at once, in a few minutes, as flames sear a child's tender skin. That was the case with 15-year-old Jennifer Anyayo, who six years ago suffered severe burns to her face, chest and left arm. She is just one of the victims from two decades of fighting in her native northern Uganda.
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Jennifer Anyayo's first winter, a season piled high with ambiguity if not snow, should take on a new look Wednesday.
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