Margaret Aloyo (Aloyo meaning "No Escape") is the sole income earner for her eight children. The father of the children died of AIDS when he was forty years old.
Margaret and her five year old daughter are HIV positive. The five-year-old is currently receiving treatment at the local hospital - a twenty minute walk away. Neither Margaret nor her daughter are receiving life prolonging ARV (Anti Retroviral) medication.
Another of her children died when they were only eight months due to meningitis.
Margaret and her family have been displaced from their village for many years. Her village is thirty-five miles away from Kitgum.
Seven years ago, the LRA raided her village. Many people were killed. Margaret's uncle had his hands and lips cut off. Some people were kidnapped, but Margaret was spared. Her sons - Jeffery and Sunday - were not so lucky. Jeffery's and Sunday's story of survival and death can be found here.
Many older ladies were taken as well to carry precious food supplies with them. Escaped ladies said that they walked many miles with the rebels. Sores and blisters covered their feet. If any of them said they were tired, or collapsed from exhaustion, the soldiers said they would give them rest and promptly shot them.
She receives no help from the UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) - she missed the registration day.
She often begs her neighbors for any menial tasks she might perform for money - "Can I fetch water? Can I break bricks?"
She tends to work one day and cooks and eats the next, which means that her family usually gets one meal every two day.