Former Ugandan child soldier and child bride Grace Arach, who now rehabilitates child army abductees, will tell her story in Whanganui next Tuesday.
When she was 12, Ms Arach was abducted by rebel soldiers. She was handed over to Otti Lagony, the infamous deputy to Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army's (LRA) chief Michael Kony, and became his 11th wife.
With other captured children, she was sent into battle, equipped with just three hours of "basic training" in use of an AK47.
Ms Arach endured more than five years with the LRA before she escaped. She and two other children eventually made their way to the Sudanese government barracks. They were protected and handed over to the United Nations and Unicef.
Ms Arach finished her secondary education through sponsorship from World Vision and a US sponsor and went on to study a Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of Sydney, working part-time in mental health.