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A carefree, blissful day of excitedly playing tag and running freely was interrupted. Days of innocence and wonder thoroughly ruined. Happiness washes away with the downpour of tear gas. Bullets rush to every which side. You’ve watched everyone you love leave the Earth. Vanished are that of the days in which parents held your hand and sheltered you from harm. But now is a time where mom and dad can no longer protect you. Now is a time where you are stranded and left to your own devices at an incredibly young and vulnerable age. With this comes a new sense of being. It is a sense of confusion of your own being. This bewilderment ultimately leads you in directions you are most easily swayed despite being moral or ethical. You are no longer human but instead a chess piece. A network of power hungry elites will control your fate. This is essentially the only way to seek protection and have a mere chance at survival. Now you will endure anything to live.
Today the world consists of about 250,000 child soldiers. (War Child) Some children are either voluntary due to the loss of their families and are the victims of charismatic and compelling warlords or they were unwillingly abducted from their homes. (UNICEF) While the majority are primarily boys for fighting purposes girls are being roped into the groups as wives and sex slaves. (War Child). A major misconception is that child soldiers are a product of rebel groups, however, governments condone this activity. (War Child) The children are seen as able bodies in the fight to hoard power. Children are being used in the most exploitive and destructive manner in order to keep power. Power is the root of all evil and with that comes dehumanization as the promise to keep alive humanity.
War Child a U.K. organization that is using all efforts to change the lives of children whom grow up amidst war has posted the following story on their page about a young girl named Agnes.
Here is Agnes’ story:
“It’s almost impossible for us to understand what she has been through:
When Agnes was 10 she was abducted from her family’s vegetable garden by Joseph Kony’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army.
When Agnes was 11 she was forced to kill another child who had tried to escape: “they told me if I do not kill that person, they will kill me.”
When Agnes was 12 she was raped by one of the rebel commanders who took her as one of his ‘wives’.
She managed to escape, aged 13, and fled to an army barracks. A few weeks later, she was reunited with her sister.”
There are many other stories similar to those of Agnes’. Today, children all over the world are being affected. Sadly, these children will continue to suffer from these horrors post childhood. One should truly hope and strive for a world where those who are innocent will be protected from such evil and violent actions.
In the great words of Grace Machel whom formally worked for the UN in 1996:
“War violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and nurtured and respected”(Child-Soldiers).
If anyone feels the need to help with this issue here are some resources:
War Child: https://www.warchild.org.uk/get-involved
Child Soldiers International: http://www.child-soldiers.org/
SOS Children’s Villages: http://www.sos-usa.org/our-impact/childrens-rights?gclid=CKSUu-Ssm8kCFROSfgodhwUI3w