In an interview with the author Mirco Keilberth, he takes stock of his involvement in Rebound and considers the future of the project.
Mr Niedecken, how did the Rebound project come about?
In August 2004 I spent two weeks in UgandaThe average elevation of the Republic of Uganda is 1,000 metres above sea level in the Central African Highlands. more as an ambassador for the organisation “United for Africa”, an alliance of 30 German aid organisations. I visited as many institutions as possible belonging to these NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in order to learn about their work so that I could explain it to the media at home and ensure that I could deal with the situation on the ground.
It wasn’t until the end of this trip that I reached North UgandaThe average elevation of the Republic of Uganda is 1,000 metres above sea level in the Central African Highlands. more. In 2004 the civil war was still fairly intense. The rebels attacked refugee camps and kidnapped children from the more remote countryside settlements. Many farmers tried to remain in their villages even though this was no longer permitted as the people were forced to live in refugee camps.
The rebels even took children from the refugee camps and forced them to become Child soldiersA child soldier is: “... any person below 18 years of age who is or has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group (...), more. These children were subject of terrible things. I was pretty distressed on my first evening. First of all we visited a refugee camp where I saw the condition in which people were suddenly forced to live and were no longer able to tend their fields. The change in their situation meant that everything fell to pieces.
Families broke down as men were robbed of their self-image. They are responsible for cultivating the fields and have to be able to feed and protect their families. Now they could nit do it anymore. Diseases began to spread. Some of the camps were surrounded by minefields to stop the rebels from approaching. If children were playing football and the ball went into the minefield, they could not retrieve it. These are unimaginable stories whcih people in civilised Central Europe naturally never experience first hand and that I’d only heard about in media, became real to me.
In the evening, we went to the reception centre, a facility for housing freed Child soldiersA child soldier is: “... any person below 18 years of age who is or has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group (...), more. “Free” often meant that they had been left behind during a skirmish or fight. Of course, the government soldiers fired at the rebels regardless of whether they were children or not. Those who seemed suspiciously young were then brought to the reception centre to have their wounds treated. Later, the aid workers also had to deal with the traumas from which the children suffered. It sounds a bit cold to talk about it like this, but when you’re faced with boys aged 12, 13 or 14 with horrible wounds, telling you what they were forced to do, it’s almost unbearable. You don’t really want to know the details. As well as the girls aged 14 and 15 who stood before me with HIV-infected babies conceived against their will – your heart just breaks.
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Wolfgang NiedeckenWolfgang Niedecken is a musician and visual artist who hails from Cologne. more |
Children in Norduganda |