Ilya Gridneff,
The Age, July 27, 2013
KITGUM, UGANDA:
You do not find many Sydney grandmothers in an African war zone but for Irene
Gleeson, who dedicated more than 20 years to giving hope to thousands of
Ugandan children fleeing the Lord’s Resistance Army, she did not want to be
anywhere else—it was home.
On Friday in
Kitgum town, a bumpy seven hours’ drive north of Uganda’s capital Kampala in
east Africa, close to 10,000 gathered for a day-long memorial to honour and say
farewell to “Mama" Irene Gleeson, 68, who died from cancer in Sydney last
Sunday.
One of those
was Christopher Nyero, 27, who has relied on the Irene Gleeson Foundation since
2002 for vocational education, shelter, food, water, counselling and basic
medical care after being abducted by the LRA for eight months when he was 16.
"I know
‘Mama’ Irene is in heaven but my heart is sore. She meant very much to me. I
miss her," he said. “Since coming here I have gained skills as a
bricklayer and had a safe place to stay. Without her I don’t know what I would
be doing."
The mother of
four, who has left 15 grandchildren, never knew her father and married at 16, a
year after her mother died. She got a divorce 20 years later.
It was about
this time, in 1992, when Gleeson sold her Narrabeen home to live in the
war-torn northern region of Uganda where the notorious Joseph Kony’s LRA
terrorised locals in a guerilla war that left thousands of children orphaned or
forced to become soldiers.
In 2011 the LRA
committed more than 250 attacks and nearly half a million Ugandans fled, many
across neighbouring borders.
The
International Criminal Court wants Kony and those in the senior ranks of the
LRA for crimes against humanity during more than two decades of terror across
northern Uganda.
The LRA, now
thought to be hiding in the Central African Republic, devastated the region but
Gleeson was determined to make a difference, and slowly she did.
Her
Christian-based IGF established itself in the area and grew to now have 8000
children looked after by 450 working staff supported through Australian and
American donors.
John-Paul
Kiffasi, IGF executive director, told Fairfax Media “Mama Irene" wanted
Ugandan children to have the same conditions as those in Australia.
"She gave
away her children’s inheritance, sold her home in Sydney and came into a war
zone to set up a caravan in the bush. She first gathered 50 kids under a mango
tree and fed them, clothed them and educated them.
"Twenty
years later we now have had more than 20,000 gone through these doors. The
first 50 are now managers at our four schools, one became a doctor and four are
nurses," he said.
In 2009,
Gleeson’s tireless work in health, education, HIV awareness and vocational
training was recognised when she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Kiffasi said
Gleeson was driven to rid the world of injustice.
"Her
sacrifice has transformed the landscape of north Uganda," he said. “She
has rescued and given hope to thousands of children who could have perished in
the war had she not helped," he said.
More than 6000
past and current IGF students, scores of locals, dignitaries and numerous
representatives from international and local non-governmental organisations
were at the memorial service.
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