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.

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.

The ceremony will be held on Thursday, 7 December at 7:30pm at: Waterstones Bookshop The Simpson Room (top floor) 203-206 Piccadilly London W1V 9LE