LALAM MONICA was born in Pader in 1989. She had just been weaned from the breast when her parents were both killed by the rebels. She and her two brothers came to live with their grandfather in Kinene. When the war intensified, they went to Paicho IDP Camp where she dug in a garden to earn money for food which was delivered to the camp once a month. There was a shortage of food and water and no medicines or vaccines. Many died while in the camp. One night the rebels entered the camp and took her and five others, tying them together with ropes connected to rocks. The government troops arrived and in the exchange of gunfire, the girls ran into a hut. The army dispersed and left them in the house. Monica said that she knows it was God who saved them.

Her aunt from Kampala then came and brought her to Kampala to babysit for five years then returned her to the camp in 2005. She married and give birth to two boys while in the camp then divorced. In 2007, she left the camp and came back to her grandfather in Kinene. She remarried in 2010 and gave birth to a little girl. In 2014, she gave birth to a little boy. She is making jewelry for school fees and medical care for her children.