FLOURENCE OKOT
She is 32 years old and a widow with 9 children under her care. Most of her children are not going to school because she can not afford it. Her husband died of HIV/AIDS two years ago and she is also living with HIV/AIDS. She finds work digging in people’s farms to raise money to feed her children. Flourence is the woman who started the paper jewel making group and now the group consist of 25 women. Most of the women are displaced and are HIV/AIDS positive. The local people prefer imported jewels made out of gold, silver, metals, or plastics to the local made jewels. So when she comes across tourists she pulls her jewels out of the bag and begins to try and convince them to buy. However, she said that it is not easy to convince tourists to buy because she does not know much English.

LAKER MARY
She is 34 years old and disabled because of the torture from the Lord Resistance Army (LRA).She said that a rebel got her and her husband at their home and started beating them until she was unconscious. Her husband was taken by the rebels and when she came to she realized that her two sisters and her mother were killed right beside her. She crawled to the near by road where a villager helped her and took her to the hospital. After many days her husband was brought to the same hospital. Both were treated, but refused to go back to their original homes for fear that they could be recaptured and killed. She now makes jewelry and the proceeds go towards food for her children and school fees.

AKOT CHRISTINE
She is 22 years old and displaced with 2 kids. She makes jewelry and it is out of the money from her jewels that she survives. She is HIV/AIDS positive and a widow. In addition to her jewelry making she also fetches water to take to a building site. She uses this money to buy basic needs for her family. She wants her children to have a better life.

EVERLYN OKELLO
She is 39 years old with 7 children. Her leg was broken as a result of the torture by the rebels and she is living with HIV/AIDS. One of her children is also paralyzed as a result of a poor medical operation and his wound has failed to heal since February of 2007. She uses the money to provide health care for her children.

ANGEYO SARA
She is 47 years old with 4 orphans. She is a disabled lady who walks by leaning on a stick. She was once tortured and her son was abducted by the LRA. She lives in an IDP Camp and makes jewelry for survival. She also gets food from WFP for her family.

ALICE OLARA
She is 26 years old and was formally abducted. She is back and living in an IDP camp. She has four kids and said that she doesn’t have any means of taking them to school since she is weak from the torture she was subjected to. She uses the money to send her children to school.

ROSE OKELLO
She is 45 years old with 9 children. She was tortured and robbed by the rebels and is living in an IDP camp. With no proper means of taking good care of her family she depends entirely on WFP and the jewelry making for support.

ACIRO WINNIE
She is a widow living with 6 orphans. She was in her garden when a rebel came and caught her and her husband digging. The rebels started beating them severely. She was beaten unconscious and awoke only to realize that her husband was dead. Now she is leaving in an IDP camp. She is weak and gets chest pains whenever she walks long distances or tries to do hard work. She uses the money to support her children.

VENTORINA AWOR
She is 45 years old and leaving in an IDP camp using WFP for food. She is a widow who takes care of 8 children from her two deceased daughters. Some of the kids were infected with HIV/AIDS from their mothers before they passed. One of her children were killed by the LRA. She is one of the women who make jewels out of paper to support her family.

SISILIA OPIRA
She is 25 years old and was formerly abducted and recruited in the LRA. While with the rebels she was forced to carry heavy loads from one place to another. She now has persistent chest pain that does not allow her to do any heavy duty. Her life depends entirely on WFP for food. She has two kids of her own that she uses the money from the jewelry to pay for school fees. Her husband also has three kids from his deceased ex-wife. All of the children depend on the proceeds Sisilia gets from her jewel making.

SILVIA AYELLA
She is a widow and 39 years old. She gave birth to 6 children and 3 were abducted by the rebels in 2001. She does not know if they are alive or not. She lives in an IDP camp and depends on her jewelry making and food from the WFP to survive. She has rented a piece of land for farming, but floods has destroyed her crops in the past. She is hoping that her jewels will give her a better life and to provide crops for her family.

AKELLO SISILIA
She is also among the women who makes jewels from an IDP Camp. She was once abducted and torture by the rebels for failing to walk a long distance. She was beaten until unconscious and left to die. After escaping she found out that her home was burnt by the rebels and that 2 of her 5 children were taken. With no where to go she had to go and stay in the IDP Camp. Flooding has spoiled her crops and she says that WFP food is not enough to sustain her family. She believes that with God she will still have a better life.

JOSEPHINE ABWOL
She is 60 years old and living in an IDP camp. She survives on WFP food and jewelry making. She uses the wages to buy clothing and food for the two orphans she is taking care of.

SILVIA OKOT
She is 27 years old and has given birth to 5 children. They are all in her care along with three orphans of her deceased sister. She was abducted three times by the rebels. The first time she stayed with the rebels for one month before escaping. The second time she stayed for 2 weeks. The third time she stayed for 2 months. Each time she escaped during cross fire between the LRA and government troops. She uses the money for school fees for her children.

ALICE OLARA
She is 30 years old with 4 kids. She earns a living with jewelry making and has hired a piece of land near the camp on which she plants subsistence crops for her family. She was once abducted and recruited among the rebels. She was with them for 2 and half months before escaping during the night. However, she escaped only after having been impregnated by one of the rebels. She is not certain if the father of her child is alive or dead. She believe that the father to her child will escape from the rebels since he was also abducted and force to join the rebellion.

AKELLOCAN BETTY
She is 30 years old and her husband died in a road accident. She was left with her 2 kids and she lives in an IDP camp. As a displaced person she survives on the food distributed by WFP. She is also HIV positive. She lives in fear of not knowing how her children will live after she perishes. She complains of not having much to eat for herself and for the family. She is only hoping that her jewelry sells in order for her to have food to eat and to let her children receive an education. Her brother who would have helped her children was killed by the rebels of LRA.

ROSE MAIRIMA
She is 49 years old and is keeping 10 children. Her husband was tortured and killed by the rebels of the LRA. She was also tortured by the rebels when her husband was killed. She has constant chest pain and spits blood whenever she does heavy duty work. She also has a painfully swollen and paralyzed arm. She depends on WFP food for survival and she rolls paper into jewelry for money to help her children. When she was tortured two of her children where abducted by the rebels and became frontline troops in LRA forced to raid villages and destroy properties. After some months they managed to escape and now they have been reunited with their family.

SARAFINA OJOK
She is taking care of 9 children and only 7 are her own. She is a widow. She depends on the WFP food to feed her family and now she is making beads. She is sick from diabetes and suffers from high blood pressure. She introduced the paper bead project to her fellow women in the camp with the help of Flourence Okot.

LUCY AKENA
She is a disabled person who broke her leg when she fell into a pit while being chased by the rebels. It did not heal well and now she can not do a lot for herself or her 5 kids. Her husband has taken another woman and does not support his 5 children. She feeds them on WFP and makes paper jewels to make up for lack of food provided.

AJOK EVERLYNE
She is 33 years old and has 2 kids. She also has 2 orphans of her deceased brother. She is displaced by the war and is living in an IDP camp. Her family depends entirely on WFP for food because she does not have a piece of land for cultivation. Now that she has learned how to make paper jewels she hopes to buy a piece of land and send her children to school.

FLOW OOLA
She is 36 year old and has 7 children. She works for people who have land for food and also uses WFP. Money from the jewelry goes towards paying school fees for her children. She was also tortured by the LRA.

APIYO SILVIA
She is 40 years old and has 6 children. She also has 2 children from her deceased sister. She depends on WFP and does odd jobs working on farms in order to get money to feed the children and pay school fees. She learned how to make paper beads and hopes that one day she will be in a position to earn a living.

ANEK POLINE
She is 35 ears old and displaced in an IDP camp. She has one child and they survive on food distributed. She is among the women who makes paper beads. She was once cut many times by the rebel and left to die, but by God’s grace she survived and was taken to the hospital. She has healed, but now she cannot do the work the IDPs offer in order to get money, food, clothing, and other basic needs. She said that whenever she does any hard job she splits blood and remains in constant pain for some time. She uses the money to receive proper treatment so that she can be completely healed.

AUMA LUCY
She is 31 years old and is displaced with HIV/AIDS. She is also among the women who makes the paper beads. She has 2 kids and it is out of the proceeds of the jewels that she feeds them and sends them to school. She does not know if she will live much longer.

AKELLO ROSE
She is 55 years old with 8 children. She does odd jobs and jewel making for survival of her family. At her age she considered elderly. The life expectancy of Uganda is around 45 years. She uses the money to help her children go to school.