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Ugandan girl needs help to get more treatment

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. That would be a first for the 15-year-old victim of war.

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.

That would be a first for the 15-year-old victim of war.

I met Jennifer two years ago in northern Uganda, where a civil war has roiled for 20 years.

This conflict has its own gruesome twist: A guerrilla group called the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has fought the Ugandan government. The LRA keeps its numbers strong by kidnapping children and forcing them to become soldiers. Tens of thousands have been abducted and ordered to commit atrocities; girls have been repeatedly raped.

One of those atrocities occurred about seven years ago, when rebels attacked Jennifer's village. She and her father were in their hut. They ordered him to leave and killed him as he obeyed. They ordered her to stay and then set fire to the hut.

Jennifer suffered serious burns to her face, chest and arm that received little medical attention for years.

Folks who read her story wanted to help. In December, she arrived in the United States to live, mainly, in Philadelphia and undergo surgery in the metro Washington area by plastic surgeon Craig Dufresne, a talented yet humble doctor.

If she were to go home to Uganda tomorrow, Jennifer Anyayo would already have benefited immensely.

The appearance and functionality of her face have improved after one series of operations at Fairfax Hospital, INOVA Health Systems, in Fairfax, Va. Part of her hairline, which was burned off to the top of her head, has been restored.

Doctors removed scar tissue, loosened her cheek skin to protect her eyesight, put small implants into her cheeks, and did a little work to rebuild her nose.

She made dear friends with children her age in Maryland, where she stayed for the summer. Her English improved dramatically at the Washington International School's language camp.

It has not been a perfect visit. Jennifer has adjusted to U.S. teen culture, with its coarse media and music, a bit too well. She is moody - just like an American teen.

But Jennifer is not an American teen. She is the child of war, and she carries with her the emotional trauma of war. Add the stress of being in a new country undergoing surgery.

Jennifer will be happy to reunite in Uganda with her mother and siblings, whom she deeply misses. But she will have to readjust to her own culture.

Before all that happens, Dufresne would like to repeat the entire surgical procedure - creating new tissue by inserting small balloons under her skin and filling them with saline solution. He uses the new tissue to repair her face.

Fairfax Hospital, a not-for-profit, spent tens of thousands on Jennifer's first round of treatment. But there's not enough left in its charitable account to cover all the remaining costs. Jennifer needs your help again.

Let me first update you on the Jennifer Anyayo Fund to which readers already have contributed so generously. Your donations have paid for living expenses, including clothing and food.

The money has bought some medications, though James Plumb and medical students at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital raised money to pay for most prescriptions.

The fund paid for Jennifer and her guardian, Abitimo Odongkara, to travel from Philadelphia to the D.C. area for eight weekly outpatient sessions and two surgeries.

We also need to reserve as much as $15,000 to buy a high-quality prosthetic to cover Jennifer's left hand, now only a bent stump that ends at her metacarpals. A. Lee Osterman, a top Philadelphia hand surgeon, has generously donated his services, as has Jefferson Health System's Methodist Hospital, to straighten her hand so it can be fitted with the prosthetic.

The fund will continue to cover some expenses, plus part of the cost of the coming surgery. But that's not enough.

Fairfax Hospital's foundation needs about $12,000 more to pay for the second round of Jennifer's facial reconstruction.

As she undergoes her surgeries, guerrilla leader Joseph Kony and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni are engaging in peace talks that already have produced a cease-fire and could well end the fighting for good.

For much good.

At last, Jennifer and other children scarred in this war might find opportunities for a better life surrounding them, rather than chaos, kidnapping and killing.

Donations to the Inova Health System Foundation are tax-deductible. Send contributions (checks only, please) to:

Inova Health System Foundation, 8110 Gatehouse Rd., Falls Church, Va. 22042. Attention: Corinne Habel.

You also can contribute to Jennifer's fund at Sovereign Bank, which is not tax-deductible. For more information, see http://go.philly.com/jennifer