mr. dougherty, we heard from ms.rickland on the first panel, she reached out to the va and was told there's no help, literally hung up with nothing, and we just heard ms. curry, obviously, a totally different story. with a no wrong-door policy, it's unacceptable that more help wasn't geffen to ms.-- given to ms. strickland and and others like her. ms. curry, i wanted to ask you what was the turning point that led you to the va? >> actually, it was a very long time before the resources were really known to me. i had to do some research. i actually contacted military one source which is a very helpful resource who helps you, basically, get to a lot of different resources. um, but what led me to the va was the fact that i was just tired of being homeless. i was tired of not having a stable job and having to ask people for things, and i'm the type of person where i like to get everything on my own, so it was definitely a challenge for me. so i had to make an adult decision and go to a shelter where the program would be a

dougherty. thank you for being with us today. welcome. and our second panel, regional ambassador, and mr. jacob, a former lra abductee who will share with us on the second panel their personal experiences of working to help communities in uganda recover from the lra and their personal experiences of being victimized by the lra which i think will add some strength and breadth to today's hearing. the lra committed brutal attacks that have destabilized the region resulting in displacement, kidnapping, mutilation and rape. joseph kony and his commanders abducted tens of thousands to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves forcing them to commit terrible acts. today we're privileged and humble to hear from two victims of the lra, jacob and jolie, of their enduring horrific experiences in uganda and courageous efforts to live forward and to make positive change in the world from that experience. joseph kony epitomizes the worst of mankind and evil of the day. while the lra has left uganda in 2006 it continues to burn a path of destruction through the whole region as you can see from this chart i