Publisher's Synopsis
A true account--15 year old Stella was kidnapped from her tiny village in Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in 2007. Joseph Kony's rag-tag militia of children oppressing children has reeked havoc on Africa for decades. "When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." This Ugandan proverb illustrates the ongoing reality that when war is waged, it is the innocent that suffer. The Ugandan people's frustration was grave as they watched their children suffer under this madman's unfettered rule. As one of those children, Stella suffered torture, unimaginable hardships, and was in constant fear for her life. Then, miraculously, she and a group of children are inexplicably released. Seven years later, Stella shared her story for the first time with an American visitor, Janet Storton, who had come to Stella's village to initiate an entrepreneurship program for women. Storton's heart was deeply touched. She took notes furiously and promised Stella that her story would be told. Storton returned home to Sisters, Oregon, and wrote "The Grass That Suffers." It became clear to her that although Stella's story was a carefully recorded and true account of one woman's story, it is not solely hers. Janet's own story has become intractably linked with that of Stella's and many other Ugandan women. They have formed a shared foundation, Sisters of the Heart, to empower women by bringing hope, building a future, and empowering a community. They all realize that as long as there is injustice and oppression, especially of children, this story of atrocity is universal in scope. This book contains 98 pages of word pictures and photos meant to sew together the fabric of our broken lives into quilts of hope. May the healing begin.
