The making of this site

My name is Sara Gentzler. I am a junior Journalism, Media and Computing student at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. My freshman summer, I went out on a limb and decided to go on the backpack journalism trip to Uganda offered by my university. I helped film and produce a short documentary called Mato Oput, which you can watch here. I couldn't get enough of the culture and became very passionate about increasing awareness of the conditions of life in Uganda. You can read my blog from that trip here. This last summer, I went on the backpack journalism trip again as student director/producer for another documentary that is in progress and conducted this project. You can read my blog from that trip here. My experiences in Uganda have truly changed my perspective and my life. I hope I have passed some of that forward through this website.

Me with Samuel and his family.

What good is knowledge if you don’t share it?

As a journalist, my role in helping tragic situations is to report and tell the stories of those who have no means to do so themselves. For this project, I set out to look deeper into what happens when child soldiers return home, and to bring an untold story to light.

The Goal

I learned so much over the process of interviewing and researching, it’s hard to convey when people ask. My goal is for this website to share the perspective I have gained in a more effective way. I hope to bring an issue to people’s minds that they may not have thought about before and to help them to question common assumptions about other parts of the world.

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doi: http://www.child-soldiers.org/psycho-socia/Trauma_Resilience_and_Cultural_Healing_2007.pdf

Akello, G., Reis, R., & Richters, A. (2010). Silencing distressed children in the context of war in northern

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http://www.child-soldiers.org/psycho-social/Akello_et_al_Silencing_distressed_children.2010.pdf

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by the lord's resistance army in Teso, eastern Uganda. London, UK: Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.

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soldiers. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(5), 573-581.

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and resilience. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 227-257. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100356

Mazurana, D., Carlson, K., Blattman, C., & Annan, J. (2008). A way forward for assisting women and girls in northern Uganda:

Findings from phase II of the survey of war affected youth.

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processes and pathways to resilience. International Review of Psychiatry, 20(3), 317-328.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Creighton University for awarding me the grant to pursue this project.

I would also like to thank:

Morgan Braaten

Dr. Jill Brown

Herbert Busiku

Fr. Don Doll

Chase Ehlers

Peter Freeze

Fr. James (Translator)

Carol McCabe

Malia Robinson

Robin Zagurski

Okodo Samuel and his family

& Dr. Carol Zuegner

Sources used in the making of this site:

Questions or Comments? E-mail me.

All photos were taken by me, Sara Gentzler.