Home Again: Evaline & Peyot
How the Comfort Dog “Peyot” Gave Evaline Back Her Life
After 20 years without rest, Evaline found healing in a dog who had suffered as she had.
Every time Evaline comes home, Peyot is already running to meet her. She leaps, she plays, and she greets Evaline as though she has waited the whole day for this one moment. And Evaline, who once spent her nights alone with voices no one else could hear, no longer feels alone.
It is a small, ordinary scene. For Evaline, it is nothing short of a miracle.
The Night Everything Changed
In the year 2000, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted Evaline and her husband. The couple had two young children, and at the moment of their abduction, both were left behind in the house.
The LRA was a rebel group led by Joseph Kony. It emerged in northern Uganda in the late 1980s, in the turmoil that followed the 1986 change of government. Over the next two decades, it abducted more than 60,000 people from the north, including some 20,000 children. Many of those children were forced to become child soldiers. By then, entire communities had lived for years in fear, and Evaline’s family was among them.
What happened to Evaline on the night of her abduction is a horror she has never been able to forget. She was forced to watch her husband, the father of her children, being killed. The soldiers then turned on her, stabbing her 12 times with a knife and leaving her for dead.
Yet even then, the thought of her children refused to let her stay down. With her clothes soaked in blood, she gathered the last of her strength and ran back to them. She lifted one child onto her chest, gripped the other by the arm and carried them both into the bush to hide.
But once there, she was stranded. She had no idea where home was, and her feet would not move. Shock had taken hold of her body completely. So she simply stood there, holding her children, as the hours passed and the darkness slowly gave way to dawn.
“I didn’t know where home was. My body was in shock and completely shut down. I couldn’t even move my feet.”
When morning came, her family set out to look for her and found her a few hours later. They carried her home together with her husband’s lifeless body. By then, her blood-soaked clothes had stuck to her skin, so they had to be cut away from her body.
A Different Kind of Captivity
After her husband was laid to rest, Evaline packed her bags and moved to town to keep herself and her children safe and to start her life over. Instead, this move marked the beginning of a new and quieter struggle: her battle with her mental health.
Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was her husband, the soldiers and all the horrors of that night. As a result, sleep became something she feared rather than longed for, and she felt scared, lonely and helpless.
“Every time I closed my eyes, I saw it all again, all that happened to me. The voices in my head were too loud.”
For 20 years, Evaline knew no real sleep. Even so, she did what every mother does. Day after day, she cared for her children and for her own needs, carrying on without rest.
Throughout those years, she never stopped searching for relief. She spent six months in a psychiatric hospital, yet nothing changed. Afterwards, she was brought back home from town for proper management, but instead of fading, the voices grew louder and louder. She had returned to the very place where it all began.
A Stranger, and a Second Chance
In 2020, a stranger connected Evaline to The BIG FIX Uganda, and everything began to shift.
On arrival, she was introduced to the Comfort Dog Project (CDP), a 20-week healing journey that pairs war trauma survivors with rescued street dogs. Before anything else, Evaline was oriented about the programme and asked whether she consented to join. She said yes.
Alongside her PTSD counselling, she was then paired with her comfort dog to start the healing process. Peyot had been rescued from the streets and was under the care of the CDP, a deep wound still marking her back from the bites of other dogs. The moment Evaline laid eyes on her, she knew that was the dog she wanted to care for.
“When I saw Peyot, she had a deep wound, and no one seemed to want to take her under their care. I knew she was exactly who I needed.”
She named her Peyot, which means “Not Easy.”
“When I saw Peyot, she had a deep wound, and no one seemed to want to take her under their care. I knew she was exactly who I needed.” She was named Peyot, which means “Not Easy.”
Starting Over
Never in her life had Evaline imagined that a dog could bring her comfort and healing, let alone become her best friend.
“I never thought a dog could be my friend, or that a dog could heal me. Even before I joined the CDP, I didn’t think it would help me heal.”
Yet that is exactly what happened. Today, each time she gets home, Peyot runs over to her, welcomes her and plays with her. Where loneliness once waited at the door, Evaline now feels alive. The voices in her head are gone, and after two decades without rest, she has enjoyed good sleep for years. Beyond that, she is happier, and because of the empowerment she gained from the Comfort Dog Project, she has been able to raise her children and take them to school.
In October 2021, Evaline and Peyot graduated from the programme, and Peyot was named the best dog in her cohort. She later went on to win even more prizes at the annual Great Dog Games.
Graduation was not the end of Evaline’s journey. She and Peyot went on to mentor the next cohort of Comfort Dog Project teams, guiding survivors who now stand where she once stood. In addition, they were part of the school outreach teams, helping young people understand healing, kindness and hope.
When Evaline reflects on the Comfort Dog Project, she speaks of it as the place where her life began again. The counselling gave her words for what she carried, Peyot gave her someone to come home to, and the empowerment she gained gave her the strength to raise her children with hope.
“The Comfort Dog Project gave me strength. It showed me I could heal, and it gave me a reason to wake up.”
For Evaline, the name she chose for her dog has become a testimony. The road was not easy, but in the end, she did not walk it alone.
“Peyot gave me my life back. I want others to find the same comfort I found.”