The words "social justice" are ingrained in the Brandeis vocabulary. They show up when first-years consider applying for social justice pre-orientation and the term endures throughout our time at this school. They are sprinkled throughout course syllabi, inspire themed housing options and are used to advertise activist organizations of various kinds with the phrase, 'Do you believe in social justice?'
But for actress Eliza Dushku and her mother Suffolk University Professor Judy Dushku, social justice isn't a concept; they have committed a part of their professional lives to promoting equality and affecting social change through their work with former Ugandan child soldiers.
The Dushkus are the keynote speakers for this year's 'Deis Impact Festival, an 11-day event presented by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life and the Student Union that attempts to define social justice and showcase how different groups of people express that theme.
Judy Dushku is a government professor at Suffolk University and the founder of the organization THRIVEGulu. A nonprofit created in 2010, it works to rehabilitate trauma victims of the Ugandan civil war through educational programs at their healing and rehabilitation center. The name was changed from THARCE-gulu (Trauma Healing and Reflection Center). "We changed the named to THRIVE - not just surviving but thriving," said Judy.
Before THRIVE began, in 2009, Dushku took a group of her university students on a trip to Uganda, an experiential component of a class she was teaching called "The Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Former Child Soldiers." Her daughter Eliza accompanied them on the trip.
Security reasons made it impossible for Judy to take her students to Gulu, a city in the north of the country and the center of a civil war with the Lord's Resistance Army, of which infamous leader Joseph Kony was the head. As a non-student, Eliza was allowed to go. "The university wouldn't let me take the kids up to Gulu ... It was still a dangerous area," said Judy.
Instead of going to Gulu, arrangements were made for two groups of former child soldiers to be brought down from Gulu to the capital city of Kampala, approximately 200 miles south of Gulu, to meet the class.
"I remember these young teenage boys coming into the room and you sort of have that moment of trying to imagine what this child could have possibly seen and if something in them was changed," said Eliza. "Is it still an innocent child or are you sitting in the presence of a killer who has lost any kind of compassion? It was sort of uncomfortable, in a way."
During downtime, Eliza and her boyfriend Rick Fox went outside and kicked around a soccer ball with a boy named James. The moment dispelled her doubts. "They really are just kids," Eliza said.
Since then, the Dushkus have made multiple trips to Uganda. On their second visit they met Rose, who was abducted at the age of nine. "She had a number of her family members killed and brutally raped right in front of her. She became one of Joseph Kony's wives. She was in the Congolese Bush, the headquarters for the LRA, for 10 years and had three children during that time," Eliza said.
One day Rose found an opportunity for escape, and she took it. "She ran on foot with her five-year old barefoot running next to her, a one-year old on her back and six months pregnant," Eliza said. "She ran from south Sudan back to Uganda."
Yet Rose is only one of the many women taken from their families. In addition to being made slaves, many of the women also were made into soldiers along with the boys. "I'm a real feminist but I didn't know that half the child soldiers were women," Judy said.
Since 2010, THRIVE has raised money to buy land and build a center for these war victims, and they recently received a grant for 20 more computers which they use to teach computer literacy classes to people that were abducted and taken to the Bush.
The classes play a vital role in their recovery. "They felt so isolated, and they were out of touch with the world for so long and now they wonder if the world will understand them and accept them," said Judy. "Having a friend outside of Gulu and saying 'I have friend and writing to her is very empowering."
Rose is no exception. "[She] always says things like 'I want to get a Facebook page' and 'I want to go to the U.S.,'" Eliza said. "Through everything she is just this beautiful young woman that wants a lot of the same things that anyone would want, that I would want," she said.
Seeing the trauma victims' need to connect on a global level, the Dushkus are in the process of expanding on a storytelling project in which they give the kids at the center full creative control. "We encourage the kids to take flip-cams and share their stories. What do you want to say to the world?" said Eliza.
For Eliza, imagining herself in a global context comes naturally: She has traveled the world for as long as she can remember. "My mother would bring my three brothers and I on trips to meet people on the other side of the world," she said. "The biggest first step is just to go there and you will realize how close you are and how alike you are."
The mother-daughter duo's commitment to the Ugandan war victims doesn't reflect a newly realized responsibility to promoting social justice. "We've always been committed to social justice all of our lives, it's part of our family value system, but you find different ways of doing it at different times in your life," Judy said. This is the first time Judy has ever worked in an administrative way at a nonprofit.
Eliza, who starred in the series Dollhouse and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is currently shooting the pilot for The Saint, a reboot of the 1960s TV show. She co-stars as Patricia Holm with actor Adam Rayner. "It's about being involved and making voices that aren't heard, heard, given that I have this opportunity to have a platform and be a role model," she said.
"I do not feel hopeless" said Eliza. "We can provide resources and really be part of facilitating a safe place within the community."