Part 4: A disfigured Ugandan girl copes

Jennifer Anyango's voice is soft and sweet. When the 14-year-old speaks, her words sound like a song.

Her voice, in fact, is the only evidence of her age, since the war has burned away just about everything else.

In one way Jennifer was lucky: The Lord's Resistance Army of Joseph Kony did not abduct her. She was not forced to be anyone's sex slave or to carry heavy loads over countless, pointless miles.

But the rebels did take something precious from her. They robbed her of her childhood.

Jennifer was alone in her family's hut in a northern Ugandan village on the day the rebels came. Her mother has told her she was 9 years old then.

"They found me grinding millet," Jennifer says. "They closed the door and told me not to go outside. "

The rebels, who were probably abducted children themselves, set the hut ablaze.

"I was afraid. The hut was burning, but I was inside. I didn't try to get outside because I was fearing that the rebels were still outside. "

She had good reason to be afraid: Jennifer heard them making noise beyond the door.

Jennifer describes the long-ago scene while sitting in a small, dim hut in a displaced person's camp where she now lives with her mother. Her father was killed during the attack that injured her.

She shifts back and forth in a homemade wooden chair. Then she crosses and uncrosses her feet at the ankles. The movements betray the agitation of memory.

"After setting the fire, the rebels stayed a bit. I was screaming from inside, and they were laughing from outside. So I could not do anything other than scream. "

Because neighbors had fled the attack, strangers from another village rescued Jennifer and helped her to a hospital.

The injuries have left her face badly disfigured. Burns were so deep on her forehead that she lost pigment there. When her face healed, skin on her forehead and cheeks contracted, stretching the area around her eyes and exposing the sockets. Her chest and left arm have scars. Her left hand had to be amputated.

Surgery could help Jennifer, but her family is too poor and medical facilities are too scarce.

Jennifer's family treats her with kindness. "But others are mean to me. Sometimes if my mom is not around, people say I'm ugly. "

Her eyes sting terribly during the dry season when hard winds blow. "It's like my eyes are cracking," she says.

The poor of northern Uganda don't have many economic opportunities, and someone like Jennifer, the victim now of fear and ridicule, has even fewer choices.

But she doesn't know that. Even with her injuries, Jennifer sees a future for herself. She would like to learn to use a sewing machine.

That would help the family income, and give her the semblance of a normal life. Maybe now and again as she sews, she could forget her screams, and just sing a soft, sweet song.

Contact Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214 or cdavis@phillynews.com.