The facility had just opened to support children traumatized by war. While he was free and wandering around the city, a poster of the Totto-chan Centre caught his attention. A soldier from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) found the 11-year-old boy bolting through the bushes and brought him to Juba. Patrick managed to escape for good, after his third escape attempt. They beat me up and tied me up with a rope for a week,” Patrick told Tetsuko.
I tried to escape from them twice, but they captured me. “The people from the LRA forced me to live like an animal and learn how to use a gun, and I couldn't continue like that. Tetsuko learned how the centre served as a lifeline for Patrick. The now 28-year-old Ugandan man was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 11 when he was at school in the northern part of Uganda. Twenty years later, Tetsuko came to see the Totto-chan Centre and sat down with Patrick*, the first child to seek shelter at the facility 16 years ago. When the facility was founded in 1996, it was named after Tetsuko’s childhood name: Totto-chan. “Nonetheless, what children wanted most was ‘peace, schools and good teachers’, even in such a miserable situation.”Īfter her first visit to the region, Tetsuko called upon the people of Japan to help the Sudanese children through her fundraising campaign, and donated US$300,000 to UNICEF to build a trauma care centre. “At that time, there was a severe shortage of food, clothes and so many more things,” said the longest serving active UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Tetsuko came to Juba for the first time in 1993 during the Sudanese civil war, and met hundreds of barefoot children. She spent time at the Totto-chan Centre, a trauma care facility in the nation’s capital, during her seven-day tour, and listened to the dedicated staff and the children who have been affected by armed conflict. Tetsuko, one of Japan’s most famous celebrities, is a renowned actress, popular television host, bestselling author and humanitarian. Recently, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi visited the Totto-chan Centre for the very first time. Since then, it has saved the lives of thousands of children in South Sudan and neighbouring countries. JUBA, South Sudan, 1 April 2013 – It is a shelter of hope and survival she helped build 17 years ago. Twenty years after she spearheaded a fundraising campaign to build a trauma care centre for children associated with armed forces, beloved celebrity and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi meets the ‘first child’ of the Totto-chan Centre, South Sudan.
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