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George Omona, Project Co-ordinator of the Gulu Support the Children
Organisation (GUSCO), will receive the 2000 Anti-Slavery Award from
the UK human rights organisation, Anti-Slavery International, on
7 December at Waterstones Bookshop in London.
Trevor Phillips OBE, Chair of the Greater London Assembly,
will present the award to George Omona for his outstanding work
with children affected by armed conflict, particularly those abducted
by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. More than 2,300 children
have been rehabilitated by GUSCO, receiving food, shelter, clothing,
medical help, counselling and help to reunite them with their families.
"War is not a game for children. It always shatters their innocence…It
is immoral and a betrayal of our children. One cannot remain a silent
witness as these crimes are visited upon our children. Silence is
the worst crime. Rise up now and rid the world of child soldiers
as the most intolerable form of child labour and contemporary slavery,"
George Omona said.
For 14 years Gulu and Kitgum in northern Uganda have been devastated
by guerrilla war. Apart from the destruction of the region's economy
and infrastructure, an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 children have
been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and forced to
be soldiers. Brutalised, and particularly in the case of girls,
sexually abused, children aged between 12 and 17, and in some cases
as young as seven, are taken from their communities in systematic
raids.
The United Nations estimates 300,000 children around the world,
ranging in age from ten to 17, are recruited or forced by governments
and rebel groups to serve in combat. About 120,000 of those are
in Africa.
Anti-Slavery celebrates George Omona for his work to improve the
children's lives and his efforts to secure the release of children
still held by the LRA.
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