submitted photo/carolyn davisPhiladelphia Inquirer reporter Carolyn Davis will be speaking on Thursday, Oct. 25 about her recent work with Uganda war victim Jennifer Anyayo in the Widener Lecture Hall from 3:15-4:30 p.m.
When Anyayo was 9-years-old, her village in northern Uganda was attacked by a rebel group called The Lord’ Resistance Army.
Because of the attack, Anyayo was left disfigured with extreme burns to her face and arms.
Anyayo then came to Philadelphia to receive better medical attention in hopes of reconstructing her face. Davis then took on Anyayo’s story, documenting Anyayo’s life in Philadelphia, her adaptation to the new culture and her interpretation of it.
Davis’s visit to Cabrini is being sponsored by the communication department. “Davis will give us first hand reports of how the wars we fight affect innocent children,” Dr. Jerry Zurek, professor and chairman of the communication department, said.
Davis also returned to Uganda with Anyayo, now 16, where she was reunited with her mother and siblings. ?Davis wrote about Anyayo’s reaction to her family and friends, recording them as being joyous and pleasurable.
Zurek describes the purpose of Davis’s speech as a look into “what happens to children during war,” a thought that quite often escapes people in patriotic fury.
Despite her age, Anyayo went back to school and into the fourth grade. In one of Davis’s articles found on philly.com, she describes Anyayo as a teen who upon her return “actually embodies two Jennifers: the metro American and the rural Ugandan”.
The communication department welcomes everyone to learn more about the violence that affects the innocent in the time of war and to be a part of Davis’s personal and professional experience with Jennifer Anyayo.
“Davis is an example of someone who focuses her career to help the vulnerable around the world,” Zurek said. “She is a journalist of conscience”.
