Credits: Bridget Burrows/CAFOD

“I live in Nazerete, an area in Tombura town. It has been four years since we came here from Central Africa where I was a refugee. I left in 1990 because of the war. We went by foot, it took two weeks. My husband died from a disease in exile. Some of my daughters died, too. I came back with one son and one daughter, and then my daughter also passed away. We found it difficult in exile, there was no way to earn a living, and I lost four family members. Then I heard that there was peace, so I came back. When I returned home to Sudan I felt happy because this is the place I was born in.

Before we were getting water from a borehole nearby, but now it doesn’t work anymore and I have to go very far to a spring which is hard for an old person like me. I go once a day. It takes me about three hours to go there and come back. I do it, but at times when I’m sick, I send my grandchildren, although usually they’re at school. One of the difficulties we face is that when we go to the spring we have to leave our children at home. When we are away, the children can do anything, even drink dirty water, things like that. We also fear the distance we have to walk, the LRA are still in the bush, and we are women. My grandchildren get ill from the spring water, they get diarrhoea, nausea and headaches at the same time.

When my grandchildren are sick, I feel desperate, because I don’t have money to pay for medical care.”