Jimmy’s Escape to Freedom
Abducted by Uganda’s rebel army, Jimmy’s only hope for a new life was his pen pal in Canada

BY KATHY COOK

October 20, 2002: After a long, hot day hoeing his aunt’s garden in Agweo village in northern Uganda, Jimmy Akana, 13, stepped into the grass hut he shared with four older cousins and fell to his bed, exhausted. In the middle of the night he was shocked awake, blinded by flashlights as a half dozen soldiers stormed into the hut. Jimmy threw his blanket over his head, trying to hide, but was pulled out of bed. He put his trembling hands in the air as other soldiers grabbed his four cousins.

Jimmy had become a captive of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group led by a former Catholic altar boy, Joseph Kony, whose goal is to liberate Uganda from sin by installing a theocratic government. Few individuals willingly join the LRA. Instead, Kony fills his ranks with kidnapped children. Since 1986 the LRA has abducted more than 20,000 children, forcing girls into sexual slavery and turning both boys and girls into child soldiers who are then forced to kill and abduct their own people.

A teenage rebel bound Jimmy’s wrists while another turned to Jimmy’s two eldest cousins and shot them dead. Already the war had left Jimmy without parents, his father killed when Jimmy was five, his mother kidnapped. He was the youngest child of five; his siblings, however, had scattered, leaving Jimmy alone with his aunt.

“ Out!” a soldier ordered. Hurrying Jimmy along, another soldier whipped him across the back with a wire cable, drawing bloody gashes. Outside, Jimmy saw friends, also bound in ropes. He heard angry yells and women screaming. Several huts were ablaze.

In a line of terrified captives, Jimmy was marched to the edge of the village. As he waited under guard, Jimmy’s mind flashed to the only source of hope in his life: his Canadian pen pal, 11-year-old Ryan Hreljac, whose extraordinary enterprise had raised money to build a well for the village.*

Since visiting Uganda with their son Ryan in 2000, Mark and Susan Hreljac of Kemptville, Ont., had been sending Jimmy clothing, books and money for school. Now I’m never going to see Ryan again, Jimmy thought.

The thought spurred Jimmy to action. He twisted his hands and felt the knots were loosely tied. No guard was looking, so he raised his hands and began gnawing at the knots. The rope slackened. Jimmy pulled his hands free and bolted towards the forest.

As he sprinted through the tall grass, flashlights lit on him and shots rang out. Pretending to be hit, Jimmy fell down, then crawled along the ground on his hands and knees. When he thought it was safe, he got up and ran deeper into the woods.

Next morning Jimmy returned to the village. All 150 huts had been burned to the ground. A line of dead men, bound together, lay on a path. A man with his foot hacked off was sobbing. Jimmy’s aunt and two surviving cousins were missing, as were most of the children.
Horror ringed the eyes of the remaining villagers. Most were now afraid of Jimmy. The rebels were known to hunt down escapees and torture anyone who sheltered them.

Overnight, Jimmy had become homeless and an outcast. Then he remembered Tom Omach.

Tom, 42, had grown up near Jimmy’s village and was the project manager for Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR) in Uganda. Three years earlier, in July 1999, he’d met Jimmy when he organized the Hreljacs’ visit to northern Uganda to see Ryan’s well.
Jimmy ran to Tom’s house in nearby Lira, a town of 90,000. Tom opened his door and saw the distraught child standing outside. He gave Jimmy a hug, then brought him inside. Word had already reached him about the attack. “You’re not safe here,” Tom said. If the rebels attacked again, a frightened neighbour might divulge Jimmy’s whereabouts.

The next morning, with Jimmy on the back of his bike, Tom pedalled seven kilometres to the home of Jimmy’s uncle, an old man Jimmy didn’t know. Tom kissed the troubled child goodbye, saying, “I’ll come for you in a few weeks.”

Two weeks later, Tom sent the Hreljacs an e-mail about the rebel attack and Jimmy’s plight. When Susan, Mark and Ryan had met Jimmy two years earlier, the little Ugandan boy had melted their hearts. Susan remembered singing Jimmy a lullaby when she tucked him into the bed he shared with Ryan. Mark recalled the boy had stayed up past 2 a.m. reading an English-language book by flashlight while Ryan slept next to him. When they returned to Canada, the Hreljacs considered adopting Jimmy.

For that night and several nights after the e-mail, the Hreljacs struggled with sleep as they thought of Jimmy’s ordeal. Then they came to a decision. Susan e-mailed Tom, telling him she and Mark wanted to arrange for Jimmy to visit Canada as soon as possible.
Susan dug out Jimmy’s last letter to Ryan. In the big handwriting of a child, he had written:

Dear Ryan,
We are not learning very well this term. The rebels make us afraid. Sometimes we miss school because of this.
Last term I was second in my class. I am not very happy. I shall always pray for you and family and all friends in Canada.…
Susan put the letter back carefully. Jimmy was brought into our lives for a reason, she thought. But it would be difficult to get him to Canada. He had no record of his birth, no parents. How would they get him a passport and visa?

In november, back in Uganda, Tom Omach picked Jimmy up from his uncle’s and enrolled him in St. Paul Boarding School in Lira. Susan and Mark sent $400 to cover the fees. Jimmy buried himself in his studies, thoughts of visiting Canada keeping his spirits up while the threat of re-abduction loomed closer. The rebels were now raiding schools and homes on the outskirts of Lira.

Tom began the process of obtaining a passport and visa for Jimmy. Filling out the passport application, he randomly selected Jimmy’s birth date as March 5, 1989. Going to Jimmy’s old village, he found his aunt Sophia and uncle Ameny. Still terrified, they slept at night in the forest. Tom told them of the Hreljacs’ plan to bring Jimmy to Canada and both happily signed a declaration stating they approved of his visit. In Lira a lawyer notarized the document.

Jimmy now needed to apply in person at the passport office in Kampala. Tom and Jimmy took a bus into the bustling capital, and after returning to wait in line a second day, they reached a clerk. Jimmy signed his name on the application and had his picture taken. Another step done.

Shortly before Christmas, Susan e-mailed Dr. Kevin Chan, a pediatrician dedicated to international humanitarianism who had spent years working in Uganda. An immigration lawyer, she told him, had said getting Jimmy—an unaccompanied, impoverished child from a Third World country—into Canada would be next to impossible.

Chan immediately called Susan. “Anything is possible. Let me think about it,” he said. Chan had met Mark at a strategic planning dinner for CPAR and had been impressed with the family’s efforts in setting up Ryan’s Well Foundation.

In January 2003 Chan called Susan to say he was on the organizing committee for an upcoming world children’s health conference in Vancouver. The committee would issue a formal invitation to Jimmy Akana of Uganda, inviting him, along with Ryan, to participate in the conference in May. Chan insisted he pay for Jimmy’s airfare.

A few weeks later Tom received a call that Jimmy’s passport was ready. He dropped it off at the Canadian consulate. Meanwhile, the organizing committee faxed the consulate an official letter inviting Jimmy to the health conference. The Hreljacs sent another note offering to be Jimmy’s financial backers.

Two months later the request passed over the visa desk at the Cana-dian High Commission in neighbouring Kenya. The officer typed a note: “…would not want to kill children’s dreams. Willing to issue. Approved.”

On april 28 Tom took Jimmy to the airport near Kampala. While he checked in, Jimmy kept his eyes down. Afraid, he pleaded with Tom, “Please, please, come with me.”

“ Jimmy,” said Tom, “Mark, your friend, is waiting for you at the other end. His family is going to help you. You are going to go and study hard so that one day you can come back and help your people.” Tom knew this was only to be a visit, but hoped the Hreljacs would find a way to keep Jimmy.

At toronto’s Pearson International airport, Mark stood anxiously at the arrivals gate. Everyone from the flight came through before he saw the frail teenager with big eyes holding the hand of a flight attendant. Jimmy was wearing oversized pants and an old pair of dress shoes four sizes too large.

“ Jimmy! Welcome to Canada!” Mark yelled, and swept him up in a hug. As they drove through Toronto, Jimmy looked out the window in wonder, seeing freeways and masses of high-rise buildings for the first time. Jimmy tried to listen to Mark, but he could only understand a few words. Exhausted by the long flight, he fell asleep.

As Mark brought Jimmy into the house, Ryan was not exactly sure how to greet his pen pal after all this time. “Hello, Jimmy,” he said formally.

“ Hello, Ryan,” Jimmy said shyly. Ryan and Jimmy shook hands. Behind Jimmy, nine-year-old Keegan ran up and jumped into his arms. “You’re here! You’re here!” Everyone laughed.

The family led him on a tour of the house. It’s so big. I’m lost in here, Jimmy thought. At a room in the basement, Susan said, “And here’s your room.” Jimmy’s smile faded. Everyone sensed something was wrong. “You can sleep with me if you’d like,” Ryan piped in.
Jimmy’s smile burst open. “Yes, please,” he said. He had never slept on his own before.

On may 11, Ryan approached the podium at the 3rd World Congress on Child and Youth Health in Vancouver. Dr. Chan, Jimmy and Susan sat in the audience. “As fast as you can snap your fingers,” Ryan told the convention, “people are dying because they don’t have clean water….” Afterwards, Jimmy told Ryan, “I am very proud to be your friend.”

The Hreljac boys quickly developed their own relationships with Jimmy. Each morning Jimmy and Jordan, 13, jogged together. After school, Ryan played soccer with him. Jimmy could not remember ever being happier. He had three new brothers, a family and even a family dog, Riley.

The weeks passed happily—and quickly. Jimmy’s visa was only valid for six months. Come September, he would have to leave. A growing tension began to cloud the good times. Tom had sent an e-mail saying neither Jimmy’s uncle nor aunt would take him back, and Lira was no longer safe. Jimmy’s school had been attacked.

One afternoon in July, the Hreljacs took Jimmy aside. “We have a plan,” Susan said. “Would you like to stay with us for good?”
Jimmy laughed uncontrollably. “Yes, yes! I like very, very much.”

“ It might not work out, but we’re going to try our best, okay?” Mark said.

A few days later Susan drove Jimmy to the Canadian immigration office in Ottawa and he applied for refugee status. A clerk fingerprinted and photographed Jimmy before handing him a deportation order for the end of October—to come into effect if his refugee claim was denied.

Jimmy would have to attend a hearing before a judge. The Hreljacs took out a loan and hired Warren Creates, one of Canada’s top immigration lawyers. Creates collected horror-filled reports about the LRA. Personal letters of support corroborating Jimmy’s story arrived from CPAR, Tom Omach and Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s former minister of foreign affairs. The Hreljacs wrote offering to be his legal guardians.

Jimmy was ordered to appear before the Immigration and Refugee Board on Monday, September 15, 2003. As they drove to downtown Toronto, Mark and Susan were on edge. They watched anxiously as Jimmy took a seat and began answering questions about what he was afraid of if he returned to Uganda. At the end, the judge turned to Jimmy and said, “Welcome to Canada.” He then turned to Susan and Mark. “You are role models for the rest of us.”

Jimmy looked at Susan uncertainly. Is this what I think it is? he wondered. Susan rushed over and hugged him. “You’re staying with us, Jim!”

So began Jimmy’s journey into Canadian life. Joining Jordan, he en-rolled in high school and took extra English lessons in the summer. He joined the school’s soccer and track teams, quickly revealing himself as a star athlete.

One day Susan noticed Jimmy had added “Hreljac” to his name on his schoolbooks. She smiled inside. A week later, when they were alone, she put her arm around him and said, “Jimmy, if you want to, when we have a little bit of money saved, we can legally add Hreljac to your name.”

“ I’d like that very much,” Jimmy said.

“ And you know I love you very, very much,” Susan replied.

Jimmy smiled. “I love you even more.”

Today, Jimmy, now 15, is focused on his new life in Canada and is improving his English so he can help Ryan with his fund-raising.

The United Nations calls the situation in northern Uganda one of the most neglected humanitarian crises in the world. The war has forced over 1-1⁄2 million people from their homes. Disease and malnutrition are rampant among the displaced people’s camps.

For more information about the work of Ryan’s Well Foundation, go to www.ryanswell.ca.