When Samson’s brothers escaped from The Lord’s Resistance Army commanders came to his house and hacked his father to death with a machete.

They then turned their attention to Samson, beating him so badly that he lost an eye.

He only survived by playing dead as the brutal retribution was meted out.

Now after a vicious conflict in Uganda in which so many died, he simply counts himself lucky to be alive.

Samson is part of a traumatised generation which suffered at the hands of the brutal rebel warlord Joseph Kony, who terrorised northern Uganda in a long and bloody civil war. His brothers were two of the estimated 30,000 children who were abducted to become child soldiers in Kony’s army.

His shocking story is just one of countless tales of brutality from the civil war in which many young lives were ruined or lost.

Now many of those who suffered in the conflict are being helped by Horsforth nurse Shirley Crawford, who has left her comfortable life in England to help youngsters in Uganda.

Kony’s LRA kidnapped children for use as fighters or sex slaves. As part of their initiation, the youngsters were often forced to kill their own parents, so they would have no homes to return to.

Although the war-torn country has had peace for the past eight years, the effects of the terrible conflict are long-lasting.

Shirley is working with the charities Fathers Heart Ministries and Watoto to help rescued child soldiers, young offenders, women and children suffering from HIV/Aids, single mums, war widows and all those who have been affected by the 22-year war.

Among the people Shirley helps are young women who were abducted as sex slaves and who received merciless punishment if they escaped – having their noses, ears and lips cut off.

With their past on show for everyone to see, the women are shunned and have no chance of a normal life but are being given help to rebuild their lives with reconstructive surgery.

Shirley, mum to grown-up children John, 26, and Fiona, 24, is involved with the Watoto programme of reconstructive surgery for the girls who were left horrifically maimed by Kony’s army.

She said: “The girls were allocated as sex slaves to the commanders. If they decided to run away they would catch them and machete off their nose, lips and ears as a punishment and warning to other ‘wives’ not to run away.

“There is a top French facial reconstruction surgeon who gives her time for free. She is a brilliant surgeon and does a very, very good job. It is unbelievable the difference it makes to these girls who are mutilated. It transforms their lives.”

“Of course it is a label. Their faces label them as ex-soldiers so people ostracise them. That is why this reconstructive surgery is so important. The difficulty we have got is trying to make people understand they didn’t have a choice.

“When the children were abducted it was horrific. They would go in the middle of the night and they would machete to death any parents. They would tie the children up in a line and march them to the training camp in Sudan.

“On the way if any of the children cried or couldn’t make it they were macheted to death in front of the others.

“It would take them about five days walking to reach the camp and when they got there some would be made to kill younger siblings.

“The whole strategy was to break the spirit and to leave them traumatised and fearful. The commanders were told that they had a week to break these children’s spirits after abducting them.

“It was very brutal and very effective.”

Since the end of the conflict eight years ago, Watoto has been helping the boy soldiers to rebuild their lives.

The children who had suffered so much would find themselves shunned when they tried to pick up the pieces of their lives. Often they would have no homes to return to – with their families dead and their villages destroyed.

“The legacy of this war has been a generation of traumatised people,” Shirley said.

“Every single family in the north of Uganda has been affected.

“Whether you are into God or not, the message of forgiveness has been a huge part of their recovery,” Shirley said. “Learning to forgive themselves for what they have been forced to do and to forgive each other.

“When these children have got such bad memories you need to fill their memory banks with good memories and ultimately that will shift the balance. Just loving these children who are highly traumatised makes such a difference.

“It is the most satisfying thing I have done in my life. It is so amazing to be able to go and make a difference in the lives of these children. It is a very humbling experience.”

Shirley, 54, has wanted to help children in Africa ever since the age of seven when a missionary spoke at her school.

When she was 18 she went to Bible college and decided she wanted to go out to Africa, but because of family commitments she did not get a chance until decades later.

She finally became involved when the church she attends, the Life Church in Leeds, decided to build a school for rescued child soldiers. For four years she took time out over Easter to travel to Uganda to help build the school.

A year ago she put her house up for rent and sold her car and moved out to Uganda permanently. She now lives in a village near Gulu where she looks after 13 young orphans for the charity Children of Hope.

She also works with teenage young offenders in a remand home and with women who have suffered through the war.

She is also part of the Watoto programme Keep a Girl in School which helps girls to stay on in education once their periods start.

Shirley said young girls find themselves unable to go to school simply because they have no underwear, no sanitary pads and no soap. But the charity makes a massive difference to their prospects simply by providing those basic products.

“The retention rate has been phenomenal – it is something like 95 per cent,” she said. “It is so easy to make a difference over there, and people’s money goes a long way.

“I came across a village family who had no food and for the equivalent of £3 I was able to buy two huge bags of shopping that would feed them for a week.”

Before moving to Uganda, Shirley worked as senior sister at Woodhouse Grove School in Apperley Bridge. Children, teachers and parents at the school have got right behind her by fundraising for her work, as have the younger children at Bronte House School.

Shirley is now hoping to raise money to help educate children whose parents are too poor to send them to school.

Anyone who wants to help Shirley in her work can make a monthly or one-off donation to the charity Fathers Heart Ministries, Shirley Crawford, sort code 20-59-42, account number 63065987. Anyone contributing is asked to reference the donation with their name and to claim gift aid.

Contact Shirley’s daughter Fiona at crawfordfee@gmail.com for further information.