Defying All Odds: Lillian & Maria
Former LRA War Abductee and a Rescued Comfort Dog Defy all Odds to Find Healing
Abducted at 11 and rejected by the people she came home to, Lillian found comfort in a rescued puppy who had also been abandoned.
When Lillian is sad, Maria notices. She walks over, looks straight into her eyes and nudges her to play until the heaviness lifts and laughter takes its place. Her children tease her about it and joke that one day she will go mad with how much she loves her dog.
It is the kind of teasing that only happens in a happy home. For Lillian, who spent years believing she did not belong anywhere, it means more than she can say.
Taken as a Child
In January 1996, when Lillian was only 11 years old, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted her. She was taken to Sudan at the height of the war.
Over the next two decades, statistics show that the LRA abducted over 20,000 children from the north, and Lillian was one of them, a child taken from her home and forced to grow up in captivity.
At 14, she was forced into a marriage with a rebel, and together they had two children. By 2002, when her eldest was three years old, she had begun quietly plotting her escape.
A Way Home
Escaping was dangerous, and the rebels made sure the captives were afraid to try. They told them that government soldiers would kill anyone who escaped and then record their voices, playing them on the radio to lie that escapees were still alive. The aim was to convince captives that they were safe only in captivity.
A friend who shared a house with her in captivity escaped first. Before leaving, she promised to send word over the radio if she made it alive, so that Lillian would know the amnesty camp was not a trap.
So Lillian spent her days listening to the radio, waiting patiently and hoping for a miracle. Then, one day, it came. Her friend spoke her name, the one the rebels had given her, since captives were not allowed to use their real ones.
“Lakuburu, if you hear this, it’s safe to come home, my sister.”
A week later, Lillian escaped. The journey back to Uganda was far from easy, since intense fighting between the LRA and government forces made every step difficult. It was May 2004 when she finally arrived at the amnesty camp at Awach Military Barracks, after a kind stranger who was burning charcoal by the road carried her there on the back of his bicycle.
Home, but Not Welcome
Lillian was later relocated back home, but this was where a new nightmare began. Her father and three brothers had passed away, and her mother had lost her sight and was being cared for by relatives. Instead of a warm welcome, Lillian and her two children were seen as an extra burden. Her relatives even took away the mattress and bedsheets she had been given as aid by World Vision.
By 2006, the rejection had pushed her to her lowest point, and she attempted to end her life.
“I felt I had no family and no one to lean on, and so I made up my mind to take my own life .”
It was her uncle who took her in and counselled her to keep living.
In 2007, Lillian married, hoping a home of her own would bring comfort. The couple had four children, but her life only became harder. Her husband mistreated her and said he could not live with an uneducated wife. In the end, he took another wife and divorced her, leaving her stranded and confused with six children and no one to turn to.
To survive, she took on informal work in town, washing clothes for other people and using the little she earned to feed her children. Even so, she could not afford their school fees. They attended public school but never sat their exams, because she could not pay the exam fees.
“My whole life, I had never imagined a dog could give me so much joy, but Maria proved me wrong.”
Healing Journey
One day, Lillian sat by the road, crying. Filda Akumu, a staff member at The BIG FIX Uganda, saw her and stopped to ask what was wrong. After Lillian told her everything, Filda told her about the Comfort Dog Project (CDP), which pairs war survivors with rescued street dogs for healing.
Lillian enrolled in April 2025. She received counselling and support, and then she was paired with her comfort dog, Maria.
Maria was just a puppy when her caretakers abandoned her, and she had been in the care of The BIG FIX Uganda ever since. When she was given to Lillian, she was often sick, and Lillian was four months pregnant. She named her Maria because of her strong faith, since to her the name meant comfort and peace of mind.
A Life Returned
Slowly but surely, Maria began to change things.
“My whole life, I had never imagined a dog could give me so much joy, but Maria proved me wrong.”
Maria came to her, played with her and made her laugh. In September 2025, Lillian and Maria graduated from the CDP, and Maria has since won many prizes at the Great Dog Games.
Today, Lillian speaks to her friends and neighbours freely. Maria taught her how to relate to people again, one patient step at a time. The woman who once felt she belonged nowhere now has a place among her community.
“My comfort dog Maria picked me from a place of darkness and changed my life.”
For Lillian, the Comfort Dog Project gave her more than a pet. It gave her a family, support and a loyal friend who has been with her every step of the way back to people.