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UMECS sponsors a second
graduate student in IPLG

Twenty-five year old Esther Acio is the second Ugandan to join Africa University’s Institute of Peace, Leadership
& Governance with scholarship support from the Washington-based United Movement to End Child
Soldiering (UMECS). Acio was one of the “Aboke girls”—139 girls between the age of 12 and 15 who
were abducted from their high school by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on 10 October, 1996—and held
in captivity. Parents and friends of the abducted girls formed the Concerned Parents Association and started a campaign for the release of all abducted children. Acio escaped her LRA captors after three months and returned
home but it taken many years and a lot of advocacy to get the other girls released. Two are still in captivity.
With the help of her family, community and considerable scholarship support, Acio attended the Uganda Martyrs University and then went to work with the Concerned Parents Association.
Acio’s “life story is inspiring and a model of resilience,
compassion and determination,” said Arthur Serota, Executive Director of UMECS. She “is the future of Northern
Uganda; we believe she will excel as a student and visionary at IPLG and we are both pleased and honored to sponsor
her.” “The Esther you are seeing here has a dream of helping
marginalized, formerly-abducted children to get back to their homes and communities,” said Acio. “What I’m learning at
AU will strengthen my skills in dealing with conflict resolution issues in my work.”
Acio joins fellow Ugandan Akuni Job Akot as the second UMECS/IPLG Peace Fellow. Both are pursuing the master’s
degree program in peace and governance.