Simon Ogwang, CEFARH (Centre for Adolescent Reproductive Health)

A go-getter, especially to help others

“Keep going, just keep going, don’t get stuck in the trauma for too long. And try to learn some (vocational) skills so you can earn your own money, and that the future becomes brighter.” A healing process in Uganda, after the long years of war and the ubiquitous (sexual) violence, mainly means looking forward. Get over it. Simon Ogwang (34) was present at the meeting with various leaders of Haella’s partner organizations in August 2024 in Lira, Uganda.  With his lively eyes, clear analyses and calm interventions, he is a natural leader. Until 2006, until the end of the terrible war in Northern Uganda, he was one of tens of thousands of child soldiers, kidnapped in 2002 by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Simon, who came from a poor family in a village in northern Uganda, was not accepted by the area as a ‘son born out of a marriage’ and was placed with distant relatives, barely 12 years old. He was fetching water with his niece. They heard something in the bushes and then the guns were pointed at them. “Choose now whether you want to die or come with us.”  Simon wanted to do everything he could to prevent his niece from being raped – as is common in these kidnappings. They went with the rebels and ended up being child soldier where they were used as porters, tortured, cut with pangas, beaten and given all kind of mistreatment in the bush. He always stayed close to his niece, but also stood out to the army leaders because of his strength and stubbornness. In 2003 one a  female rebel army officer took their fate to heart and arranged for them to escape from the bush back home .  “We were instructed by her to go to the nearby market on Wednesday the market day , she would provide backing strategy in the battle line for us to escape out. And then at exactly 10 o’clock we reach the market where she fired gun up and ordered us to escape through the left route as we shall be taking the right route that would take us back home. From there we started to run but unfortunately she was shot and she fell down bleeding. I run back to save her but it was impossible as she was shouting for me to run and save my life and the one for my sister. Her life ended as I was turning my back; she died there. That was the hardest point for me some one dying for my life.”

The two children returned to their village through a rehabilitation camp, taken to radio station for amnesty announcement and later taken back to rehabilitation school to continue with their  education but they were frowned upon by fellow students. The stigmatization of the LRA, whether you were there voluntarily or coerced, made no distinction between perpetrators or victims. Stigmatization of victims is still a major problem in Uganda, whether it concerns kidnapping, rape and (sexual) violence.

However, Simon couldn’t keep up at school and decided to return to the camp as a 15-year-old. However, the atrocities were too much for him: he started fighting for justice for  other  when he had to watch young women being raped, sexually harassed. He was moved from one camp to the other each and every time he caused violence for justice. Ultimately, Warchild was able to take care of him and make medical training possible. And at the age of 19, he was reunited with his mother, with whom he was able to bond for the first time through long conversations about the past and her difficult choice to give him up. It gave him identity and peace.

Simon did not choose the money that a doctor can earn. He founded  an organization to give young people a future, called CEFARH: Centre for Adolescent Reproductive Health. His work has been  remarkable in changing more lives in northern Uganda. Recently the organisation started a formal vocational institute on rental and by bad act the land lord sold the premise bridging the contract and leaving Simon and the entire students stack with no alternative place to study. Simon had to surrender his residential home for the 39 students to study and went for rental room. This caused  his wife to leave out of Simon’s life because of his decision.

CEFARH started with the aim of helping young people affected by HIV/AIDS, reducing teenage pregnancy and decreasing child marriage. Activities and scope of the organization broadened during the years. Nowadays the activities also include vocational training. Over 535  of young people traumatized by violence and poverty have now been able to follow training courses at CEFARH. Stories are shared, but the transfer of skills is most important. Poverty is dire in Northern Uganda. “Only when you have food can you think.” Simon continues to choose to work, ‘under the tree, not in expensive offices’. He says that he does not want to have it on his conscience that young people linger on the street or have to continue with prostitution, for 1 euro at a time. “If I were to leave this region, I forget my past. That should never happen.”

CEFARH has been supported by several small international organizations and its network of friends. During the difficult period of Covid-19, the Italian Alessandra helped CEFARH with fundraising; unfortunately she passed away shortly afterwards.

At the moment Simon’s big dream is that through more support, CEFARH will be able to build their own school premise that will be the biggest vocational and innovation hub for all the youth in the whole entire northern Uganda and country as whole. They already acquired the land, and hope for funds to construct classroom and dormitories. But he already has a name for the school: “Alessandra technical and vocational institute”.