From displacement and violence to hope: Gloria’s Journey to recovery in Bidibidi

Gloria was a teenager when she fled the conflict in South Sudan in 2016, crossing into Uganda with her parents to live in the Bidibidi refugee settlement. Like many families who lost everything, they struggled to get by. When her parents could no longer afford her school fees, the seventeen-year-old Gloria decided to get married.  

“I got married while still 17 years of age in 2024, hoping that marriage would give me a better future,” she remembers. 

Instead, the marriage brought more hardship. Gloria faced constant physical and emotional abuse from her husband, who drank heavily. Rather than supporting her, her mother-in-law blamed her for the family’s poverty and mocked her throughout her pregnancy.  

“My ‘husband’ abused alcohol, and whenever he came home drunk, he would physically and emotionally abuse me," Gloria says. "Instead of comforting me, my mother-in-law blamed me for my husband's family’s poverty and constantly mocked and humiliated me.”  

The situation only worsened in September 2025 when Gloria gave birth to her son. Her husband turned to stealing from neighbours, and, in January 2026, he and his mother secretly fled the settlement to escape retribution, leaving Gloria completely alone with an infant and no means of survival. For five months, Gloria managed on her own before deciding to move back to her parents’ home in May 2026. But when she arrived, she found a different crisis. Her parents had also quietly left the settlement a month earlier, abandoning her three younger brothers, all under eighteen.  

At just twenty, Gloria suddenly found herself responsible for both her baby and her three siblings with no reliable income, and because of local aid distribution categories, they did not receive general food or cash assistance. Her brothers had already dropped out of school to look for casual labor, often relying on the kindness of neighbors just to eat. The pressure took a heavy toll on Gloria, who recalls, “I lost my appetite, could not sleep, could not concentrate, and completely lost hope for our future. Every day I wondered how I would feed my child and my brothers or give them the life they deserved.” 

“I tried ending my life in June 2026, but fortunately at that very moment, a caring neighbor, who regularly checked on us, arrived unexpectedly. She immediately realized what I was about to do, rushed inside, and saved my life, Gloria says.” 

The neighbours immediately contacted community volunteers, who brought a local aid worker from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), to provide immediate counselling. Gloria also joined a community psychosocial support group, an invitation she calls one of the best decisions she ever made. Through the group, she learned practical ways to manage stress and felt safe sharing her burdens.