Thank you all, Gulu mother tells readers

Ms Susan Akello and her sons with some of the donations they received from readers. PHOTO BY BRIAN MUTEBI

What you need to know:

Determined. The 24-year-old, who received assistance from readers, is set on protecting her remaining children after her husband brutally killed the others.

Gulu. She wore a bright smile as she reached out her hand to greet me while on her knees. Her two sons followed suit. Then I asked if Susan Akello still remembered me.
“Yes, it is you who came and took pictures of me,” she said through an interpreter, smiling.
That was right. On May 2, while in Gulu District, I interviewed Akello, took her pictures and published a story on May 12. Hers was a sad story.
Two of her four children were brutally killed by her husband on February 7. She had gone to burn charcoal and when she returned home to get food, she found her children lying lifeless in bed.
It was a very traumatic experience for the 24-year-old. She attempted to commit suicide. Hadn’t it been for counsellors at a Shelter, an organisation that rehabilitates survivors of domestic violence in Gulu, Akello’s life would have ended too.
Her husband was consequently imprisoned but today Akello lives with the physical and psychological effects of being in an abusive relationship.
Earning a meagre Shs2,000 a day as a waiter in a local food joint and renting a hut at Shs15,000 in Gulu Town, Akello has huge task of fending for her two boys, aged seven and five and educating them.
“My new home is behind Gulu University Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies. I want to make enough money so that my sons will not just play at the fence of the university but study there,” the 24-year-old says.
After her story was published, readers responded with kindness. Some sent her money, even as far as from Nigeria through Money Gram, others donated to her clothes. A total of Shs423,350 was raised. Akello was overwhelmed with joy.
“Tell those people I love them. I am so thankful to God for this, I am so happy,” she says.
Her needs are still many. Akello has only a pair of bed sheets and sleeps on a papyrus mat after selling the only bed she had months ago to buy food.“I want to buy land and build myself a house,” she says upon asking what she would do with the money Daily Monitor readers gave her.
Although the money is not enough, she is willing to take small steps. “I want to trade in grains. I will buy simsim and beans from the village and sell it here (Gulu Town). To that, I can also add packets of salt.”
With help of the personnel at the Shelter, it was agreed Akello uses Shs100,000 to pay school fees and buy scholastic materials for her sons Charles Oryem, 7, and Benson Megolonyo, 5, to start school.
She would use Shs50,000 to buy household items and the rest as capital for her business.
But Akello has ill health too. She has a wound on her right feet, which has been there for about two years. It is feared it could develop into cancer.
Doctors at Lacor hospital could not properly diagnose the problem. A biopsy was taken from her and samples brought to a Kampala hospital for testing.
I was not allowed to speak to a one Dr Katimbo, who Akello said worked on her case, instead I was referred to Dr Tom Okello, the head of surgery department.
When contacted on phone, Dr Okello could not comment on the case, saying he was away in Kampala doing exams.