Like so many of her generation, Adoch Everlyn’s schooling was cut short by war.  In primary six as the war encroached her village, she not only left behind education, but also her home, as her family fled to the relative safety of a displacement camp. 

The government initially relocated them to a camp near Kitgum center, a long day’s walk from their village.  The entire family, Everlyn and her four siblings and her parents, share a single tent. Food was scarce and the sanitary conditions horrific.  They endured for four years until her brother succumbed to measles.  The family packed up their few belongings and made the 13-hour trek to a camp closer to their home village.  They arrived, feet blistered, legs swollen.  Although not home, they were reunited with extended family and fellow villagers from their homeland.

They stayed in the second camp for another four years before the war subsided enough that they could return home.  Home was merely a piece of land.  Their house and everything they owned had been ravaged and burnt by the rebels over the course of the long war.  Having met the man who would become her husband, she followed him to the Acholi Quarter to build a new life.  Still just a young girl of 17 or 18, she had endured eight years in displacement camps and lost everything the family owned to the rebels.

Everlyn came to the Quarter young, full of life, and ready to begin anew.  They married and have five children.  The first two pregnancies were without consequence.  The last three were filled with challenges.  While pregnant
with her third child, in 2010, she had her first epileptic episode.  Since then, she has episodes every month or two.  She’s depended solely on local medicine to control the attacks with nominal success.  Unable to do physically demanding work because of her condition, she depends on crafting paper bead jewelry to earn money.  Gifted and skilled as an artisan, Everlyn has found fairly consistent work crafting beads.  Making beads has been a lifeline for her. 

Her husband works as a casual laborer in construction and helps to provide most of the basic food necessities and school fees for the children, but she is responsible for extras like soap, clothing, and medical treatment.