Rachele Fassera

Sister
Rachele Fassera
SMC
Personal life
Born (1946-06-15) 15 June 1946 (age 80)
Pessina Cremonese, Italy
Religious life
ReligionCatholic
InstituteComboni Missionary Sisters

Rachele Fassera SMC (born 15 June 1946) is an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary. While the deputy headmistress of St Mary's College for Girls in Aboke, Uganda, she successfully negotiated the release of 109 students in the Aboke abductions in 1996.

Early life

Fassera was born in Pessina Cremonese, a small village in the Province of Cremona. She has a twin brother and two sisters. Regarding her adolescence, she stated, "I was a real teenager, went to the cinema, the disco, and had boyfriends." She began working as a secretary at the age of 15, however, after tagging along with a friend to church, she decided to become a Roman Catholic missionary nun, though her family initially did not approve. She completed her education to become a biology teacher.

Career

Fassera briefly lived in the United States and Eritrea before being posted to Uganda with the Comboni Missionary Sisters in 1982. In 1985, she began teaching biology at St Mary's College for Girls, a residential boarding school in Aboke, where she was later appointed deputy headmistress.

On 10 October 1996, a group of rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) broke into St Mary's College for Girls and abducted 139 students, who ranged in age from 13 to 16. Fassera and a fellow teacher, John Bosco, tracked down the rebels and pleaded for the students' release, with Fassera offering to take their place. She successfully negotiated the release of 109 students, with the remaining 30 being kept as captives for the LRA. Following the abduction, Fassera and the Concerned Parents Association met with Yoweri Museveni, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Omar al-Bashir, Muammar Gaddafi, Bill Clinton, and Pope John Paul II to advocate for the remaining captive students and pressure the LRA to release them.

Three of Fassera's students that remained in captivity were Grace Akallo, Victoria Nyanjura, and Angela Atim Lakor, who were eventually able to escape the LRA and later became community activists. Fassera later moved back to Italy, settling in Rome. As of 2017, she lives in a Roman Catholic parish in Dubai.

Legacy

In 1997, Fassera received the Guinness Power of Goodness Award for her role in the Aboke students' release. In 2005, she received a Catholic Womens' Honouree Award in Kampala. In 2011, she received the Servitor Pacis Award from The Path to Peace Foundation. The Rachele Rehabilitation Centre in Lira was named after her.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bartrop, Paul R (2012). "Righteousness in the Face of Evil". In Tatz, Colin (ed.). Genocide Perspectives IV: Essays on Holocaust and Genocide. UTS ePRESS. pp. 465–490. ISBN 978-0987236975. JSTOR j.ctv1w36pg8. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  2. ↑ Draisma, Jitske (31 January 2000). "Zuster Rachele redde in Oeganda leven 109 meisjes". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  3. 1 2 Fassera, Rachele (1999). "Testimonianza: Nel dolore faccio causa comune con voi". In Maffenini, Walter; Sanicola, Lia (eds.). Bambini nel mondo: questioni da grandi (in Italian). FrancoAngeli. pp. 143–148. ISBN 978-8846416223.
  4. ↑ Gitta, Alex (7 October 2016). "Uganda: 20 years since 'Aboke girls' abduction". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  5. ↑ Masson, Isabelle (12 June 2019). "Voices of women and girls enslaved in war". Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  6. 1 2 Strudsholm, Jesper (6 June 1998). "Abducted in the name of the Lord". The Independent. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  7. ↑ Lacey, Marc (10 October 2004). "Escape From Rebels Leads To a Reunion in Uganda". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  8. ↑ Overbey, Erin (16 May 2014). "Letter From the Archive: The Trauma of Abducted Children". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Sheppard, Bede (7 October 2016). "Remembering the Wisdom of Uganda's Aboke Girls, 20 Years Later". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  10. ↑ Fassera, Rachele (10 December 1998). "Libererò le mie bambine dai ribelli". Vita [it] (in Italian). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Matteuzzi, Maurizio (18 August 2000). "Il buon Gheddafi". Il Manifesto (in Italian). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  12. ↑ De Temmerman, Els (23 August 2004). "Tragedy of Child-Soldiers in Uganda". Zenit News Agency. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Brown, DeNeen L. (10 May 2006). "A Child's Hell in the Lord's Resistance Army". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  14. ↑ Farrell, Liam (17 October 2019). "Eight Years a Captive". Notre Dame Magazine. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  15. ↑ Guest, Iain (3 May 2023). "Ugandan War Survivors Describe Forced Pregnancy and Marriage". The Advocacy Project. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  16. ↑ Socci, Antonio (12 May 2014). "Soloni e tromboni (anche in tonaca) e due piccole-grandi donne cristiane". Aleteia (in Italian). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  17. ↑ Stoppa, Alessandra (3 November 2017). "Dubai e la voce nel deserto". Comunione e Liberazione (in Italian). Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  18. ↑ Kagambirwe, Karyeija (12 September 1997). "Aboke Deputy Headmistress Gets Award". New Vision. Retrieved 30 September 2026 – via AllAfrica.
  19. ↑ Lirri, Evelyn (1 November 2005). "Catholic Women Leaders Honoured". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 1 October 2026 – via AllAfrica.
  20. ↑ Vitalini, Marina (7 June 2011). "New York: la Missione della Santa Sede all'Onu conferisce il premio "Path to Peace"". Radio Vaticana. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  21. ↑ Ocen, Julius (4 October 2007). "LRA Captives Recount Ordeals". Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Retrieved 1 October 2026.