Aboke girls

2000-01-15

KAMPALA - Africa specialist Els De Temmerman is the first person to receive support from the fund. In her book The Girls of Aboke, she talks about the fate of two girls who were used as child soldiers by rebels in their fight with the government army in northern Uganda. The girls, like thousands of their peers, have to kill other children and torture the population.

De Temmerman follows the story of the girls who managed to escape from Joseph Kony's rebel army. The end result is a sharp indictment of the abuse of children in armed conflict. All the proceeds from the book will go to a UNICEF programme for child soldiers in northern Uganda.

The Jury
The Pascal Decroos Fund jury felt that the project was such a valuable, universal and touching human story that it simply had to be supported.

Comment by Els De Temmerman
De Temmerman says she is grateful to the Fund for its support and hopes the book will increase pressure on the relevant political authorities to promote the release of the Aboke girls and thousands of other abducted children.

Horizon Pictures buys film rights to ‘The Girls of Aboke’
(BRUSSELS, 18-04-2005) -- Horizon Pictures, a film company co-owned by Stieven Spielberg, has bought the rights to the book The Girls of Aboke. This book by Els De Temmerman is the first project to receive a work grant from the Pascal Decroos Fund. It will serve as the script for a Hollywood production about child soldiers. The film will be released in cinemas at the end of next year and is proposed by the Americans as the successor to the successful film Hotel Rwanda. (Source DS, VRT).