More voices are better than one I need yours!

     Robinah Tamalie Senoga
         
    More voices are better than one I need yours!
    Hi I am Robinah Senoga - 19 years old and an asylum seeker from Uganda. My dad was a solider and died when I was about a year old. For a time, my mum and me lived in Makenke barracks Mbarara district, as it was the only place we could get shelter and food. Over the years we suffered a lot of injustices, harassments and sexual abuse by the Ugandan soldiers and there was no one we could report these incidents to at all. Despairing of this in 1996, my mum decided to take us both to Rwanda. We had not been there very long when the Rwandese government accusing her of being a collaborator in the killing of the Tutsi during the 1994 civil war and arrested her. This was the last time I was to see my mother ; I still don't know if she is alive or dead. After my mum's arrest, I returned to Makenke barracks as it was the only place I could get free food.

    In the barracks we faced serious problems of child abuse as we were forced to sleep with the top officials at night. We became concubines of the senior soldiers and we had no-where to go apart from being forced to join the army. This is only a brief piece of my history and it is not unique, this has happened to other girls who are still in Uganda.

    I have been living in Bristol for the last three years where I have made friends and come to terms with the past. I am currently attending City of Bristol College where I am doing an Access to Nursing Course.

    I have lost my legal battle to remain in the UK - the Home Office doesn't believe my story of what happened to me and my mum and I don't know how to convince them otherwise. But it's the truth! All that is left for me is to try and persuade the Home Secretary that I should be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds and for that I am going to need your support.

    What you can do to help:
    Together, Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers (BDAS) and myself have set up a campaign 'More voices are better than one' to try and persuade Des Browne the Minister for Immigration that it would be unduly harsh to return myself to Uganda.

The campaign has drawn up a model letter/petition; attached. Please fill them in and get as many other people as possible to do the same, and return them to the campaign office. When we have collected enough signatures, the campaign, will ask local MP Jean Corston to present them to the Home Secretary.For model letter/petition/leaflet, write to:

Download the Model Letter: RobinahMLE.doc

Download the Petition: RobinahpetitionE.doc

'More voices are better than one'
Robinah Tamalie Senoga Must Stay
Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers Campaign
Box 41, Green Leaf Books
82 Colston Road
Bristol
BS1 5BB
http://www.asylumbristol.org.uk/

Handing out leaflets at Downing Street Monday, 21st March 2005