On Wednesday February 28th 2024, GRACE trustees Sabine Lee, Rachel Canty and Dheeraj Akolkar, as part of a joint event of the Luxembourg foundation Stand Speak Rise Up! and the charity GRACE, participated in the film screening of The Wound is Where the Light Enters. The film, based on extensive research on children born of conflict-related sexual violence (CBCRSV), and co-produced with a group of fifteen young people conceived in the LRA and Karamojong conflicts in Uganda, explores stigma, discrimination and other challenges arising from local perceptions of children associated with the former enemy.

(Photo by Stand Speak Rise Up!)

The film screening launched a partnership between Stand Speak Rise Up! and the GRACE, supported by HRH Grande-Duchesse Maria Teresa of Luxembourg who attended the event. HRH the Grand Duchess, Sabine Lee and Dheeraj Akolkar jointly raised awareness of the issue of children born of rape in Uganda and more broadly in all war zones. Funds raised in the event will support a peer-to-peer counselling initiative in Northern Uganda.

(Photo by Stand Speak Rise Up!)

(Photo by Dheeraj Akolkar)

GRACE is looking forward to building on the event and on our joint peer-to-peer counselling project to create a lasting partnership between the two organisations raising awareness of the status and future of children born as a result of war rape, and help survivors and their families and local communities (re)build their lives.