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.

The UNHCR has partnered with Ben Affleck to bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The public is encouraged to share the short film and photos of the living conditions of the refugees in order to help raise money and awareness of the humanitarian crisis.

Voices of Sudan, a photography book by David Johnson, hopes to raise awareness of the daily strife of the victims of the genocide in Darfur. 100% of the profits go directly towards constructing wells and supplying medicine to refugees in the region.

PhotoCastNet has an interview with Zoriah, a war photographer recently stripped of his privileges to document the war in Iraq. Similarly, The Big Picture (boston.com) has a photo essay of the war in Iraq, now 5 years running.

Zoriah is a freelance photojournalist who recently lost his permissions to be an embedded reporter due to his reluctance to remove controversial photos from his blog.