The Mission:
- What We Do
- Who We Work With
- Child Soldiers
- How We Operate
- Building a Base
- Why We Solicit Support
The Mission
Who We Work With
Child Solders
“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults”
– Olara Ottuno
Child soldiers in East Africa are predominately found in Northern Uganda fighting with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Southern Sudan with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), and numerous Somali militia groups throughout the nation of Somalia.
When people from the West tune into an international news story, pictures of chaos, fire, smoke, and AK-47’s fill the air. Little is known on the conflict, but many subjective opinions are stated on the value of the conflict. Once more, so long as the area at war possesses no geo-interests for the West, little will be done to interfere.
Battles rage in East Africa with the primary resource being the children fighting on the front lines. According to Child Soldiers: Global Report 2008, “Governments which used child soldiers in armed conflict between April 2004 and October 2007: Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Israel, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan & Southern Sudan, Uganda, Yemen, additionally, the United Kingdom deployed under-18s to Iraq where they were exposed to risk of hostilities.” Of the nine countries listed, five are located in Africa.
Each child is traumatized from the onset of “enlistment.” Each day the child is forced to murder, take drugs, and sometimes even rape individuals. The life of a child soldier is equal to that of a piece of equipment in the eyes of the leadership. These children are used as weapons with no consideration of being human beings.
If a conflict ends or the child escapes, he/she is left with little or no family. If the child does have a family, he/she usually will be rejected due to life he/she has had in conflict. Without family and resources the child typically flees to larger cities in search for work. When he/she arrives in the city and realizes the lack of opportunity, the child, in most cases, is forced to join a group of street children.
According to UNICEF statistics, 300,000 children under 18 are serving as regular soldiers, guerrilla fighters, porters, spies, sexual slaves, and even suicide commandos in conflicts under way in over 50 nations. Over the past decade, conflicts have claimed the lives of more than 2 million children; left millions maimed or permanently disabled, 10 million with serious psychological trauma, and resulted in over 12 million children refugees. In addition, worldwide conflicts have created 1 million orphans. The health and education of even larger numbers have been affected because conflicts have destroyed crops, schools and clinics.