Tracing Child Soldiers

“War violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and nurtured and respected”, (Grace Machel, UN, 1996).
The challenge today is to locate a female child soldier from Uganda, Liberia, The Sudan, or any of the other troubled warzones from which they might have fled, as a refugee to the UK and talk to them about their experiences.

According to http://www.child-soldier.org/ : "Over the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict. Over one million have been orphaned, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma."

That's a whole hell of a lot of damaged kids, and war touches every part of a child's life and development. Often uprooted from their homes and communities, refugeed, ophaned, subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, they might be victims of trauma, exposed to violence, deprived of education and play, or conscripted to fight with the minimum of basic training.

As citizens in a warzone they may have no access to adequate shelter, food or medical attention, Children are frequently the lowest priority in war and because of their fundamental vulnerablility are often the most impacted by it.

Then there is the aspect of blame. Child soldiers who survive bear a tremendous burden for their communities, suffering the scars for a lifetime.