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John Hulme, http://flickr.com/photos/jphulme/
Many things that happen in our world make me shudder, but few disturb me as much as the use of child soldiers. Every few months, I see a major news organization run a story on child militias, but for the most part, the terrible things being done to these children are ignored by the media. For those who don’t know, children are used as soldiers across the world in conflicts. Amnesty International estimates there are a quarter of a million child soldiers in the world today. Typically, the children are abducted or purchased on the black market and then are forced to become soldiers. Some military leaders like to use children because they require less food and can move quietly. They are also typically not suspected of trying to infiltrate an area. Most of all, children are easily manipulated by adults, and they are often coerced into perpetrating all sorts of atrocities.
Not all the news is bad, however. UNICEF reports that for the first time, over 200 children were voluntarily returned to their families. This is wonderful news for those families, and hopefully it is a sign that the armies in that area will cease to use children to do their fighting. But even for these children who have been returned, their ordeal is not over. As you can imagine, these children bear horrible psychological scars to match any physical scars they may have endured as a soldier. The post-traumatic stress that they will feel for the rest of their lives will leave many of them a shell of the person they could have been. Their childhood can never be returned to them. UNICEF and other organizations will need to devote resources to helping these children for many years after they have been recovered. Otherwise, these children will simply have moved from one level of hell to another.
UNICEF does wonderful work in this area, and they are large enough to make a difference. There are, of course, many other organizations that also work on behalf of these horribly exploited children. War Child International is an international organization that is focused solely on this issue. As many of us begin to focus on holidays, family and thoughts of peace, let’s all remember the children who will receive nothing this season but ammunition and scars.
edited to add picture, 23-Dec-2008