Sydney
14 April 2002

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Conversation: Abduction ‘gave me strength, courage’ - Juliana Waithera Muiruri, aid worker

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Conversation: Abduction ‘gave me strength, courage’ - Juliana Waithera Muiruri, aid worker

By Kathleen Carmody

Juliana Waithera Muiruri (pictured) had been working for Church Ecumenical Action Sudan – Caritas Australia’s partner in the Sudan – for a year when she was abducted by a pro-government militia group and kept captive for 19 days in November 1999.

“It was the longest 19 days of my life,” Juliana recalls. “I prayed: ‘if my work on earth is finished, take me home and take me quick’.”

Juliana, 27, who was born and raised in Kenya, says she went through all manner of emotions.

“I got to share in the experiences that southern Sudanese people have to go through every day of their lives – the fear, the uncertainty and the pain of losing all you have.”

Juliana delivers food assistance to people affected by the ongoing conflict in the southern Sudan in the area of northern Barhel Gazhal (Church Ecumenical Action works in the most marginalised areas, near the frontlines of the conflict).

The militia kept her prisoner in a hut for five days. Then she was taken to Khartoum and handed over to the government.

She was told that her chances of freedom were slim because she worked for the Catholic Church and had no visa or work permit.

But Juliana never thought about abandoning her work. She told her captors that if she was released she would return to southern Sudan because there were women and children suffering and dying due to lack of food and medicine.

Southern Sudan has been affected by more than four decades of war. In that time, two million people have been killed and around four million displaced.

Juliana says the conflict is primarily over resources – the rich mineral and oil reserves in the south.

Religious and ethnic tensions – between Arabic Muslims of the north who would like Sudan to be a Muslim state and the southern Africans who are either Christian or animist and want self-determination – have driven the bloody civil war.

There have been only 11 years of peace in 45 years.

Juliana says that although her abduction was terrifying it had helped her to better understand the intricacies of the war.

“Above all, it gave me strength and courage,” she said, “strength to stand high and say we must not let anyone stop us.

“We are needed now more than ever.”

Juliana, a devout Anglican, was a home economics teacher for two years before she decided she wanted to work with the poor. She worked at first with a women’s group in a drought-stricken area of Kenya, then left to work with the Lutheran World Service in Kenya.

She joined Church Ecumenical Action Sudan in 1998 as a field officer in relief and rehabilitation, but is now working as a nutritionist. As well as supervising the preparation and distribution of rations, Juliana assesses the nutritional needs of children, mothers and other vulnerable groups and monitors their nutritional levels. She also screens them, weighing and measuring them for appropriate height-weight ratio, and advises mothers and carers on feeding and looking after their infants and children.

Even though the people have nothing, Juliana says often they still look happy, “with a smile on their faces”.

Juliana knows her work is dangerous. She has been caught in several bombing raids – the first while she was at church.

She describes her amazement when, after hiding in the bush for three hours, she saw the local people go back to the church and start drumming.

“They have faith in God; faith that God will bring peace to them,” she says.

When the area where she lives and works was bombed 24 times in one day, Juliana thought about asking to be evacuated, but when she saw the women carrying on with their work collecting water, and the children playing, she realised that the people didn’t have anywhere to run to.

“Who will feed them tomorrow?” she asks.

Juliana decided to stay, but admits to still feeling great fear.

Living in the Sudan means she always has to be ready to run. Workers’ bags are always packed and they sleep in their clothes.

Escape isn’t an option for the locals, though.

“For the people of Sudan tomorrow might never come,” says Juliana. “(They) might die from hunger, bullet, bomb or disease.

“I live for today as much as I can and appreciate what I have.

“I have had to leave my family and comfort at home to help the people of south Sudan make a better home for themselves.

“We are all needed, and there is a lot we can do in one way or another to ensure that all the people of south Sudan have their basic human rights upheld.”

Juliana says her experiences have drawn her closer to her God; strengthening her faith.

“I thank God for giving me a chance to know the people of south Sudan,” she says.

“Living among them has made me realise that there are so many things we take for granted. These people lack the basics of human life, mainly due to war that has been there for many years.

“Life is not what we have, or how much we have, but who we are inside.

“Looking at the suffering of these people has made me go back to basics.”