Ailing Gulu woman treks 10kms to beg

Ms Lawino who survived a fire set by LRA rebels and was abandoned by her relatives, has since suffered from the burns.

GULU

Every Friday, Ms Mary Lawino, 55, treks five kilometres from Lacor Parish to Gulu Town to beg in order to make ends meet. She endures the scorching sun from morning until 4pm, roaming the streets of Gulu as she moves from shop to shop, with the hope that someone will give her something.

Ms Lawino, who has scars all her body, got burnt when her hut was set ablaze by rebels in the late 1990s. “We were five in the hut and from nowhere, we saw fire burning. Two of my relatives died and I survived. But I am not sure of surviving the next day due to pain that keeps on increasing, with no medicine,” she says.

Ms Lawino says the scars are painful, but she has no choice but to walk so that she gets what to eat. She says, her relatives abandoned her after she became helpless. She says she gets money ranging from Shs3,000 - Shs10,000 that takes her a week. However, some Fridays, she fails to reach town due to her deteriorating health.

Dr Nathan Onyach, the director Gulu Regional Referral Hospital says Ms Lawino has hypertrophic scars arising from burns. “Her elbow are unable to straighten, these are called contracture that need to be operated. She needs plastic surgery,” he says.

In 2009, the government registered civilians who were injured during the two-decade long insurgency to get treatment, but nothing has since materialised.

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