300 000. Consider this number. Write it down, say it out loud, imagine its vastness, and place it in your heart. 300 000.
This is the approximate number of child soldiers that are currently used in the various conflicts of the modern world. This number covers the amount of children who are utilized in armed conflict across South America, Asia, and specifically Africa, and is a number so vast that it is almost difficult to comprehend. It is so difficult to comprehend because in your mind you do not just picture ranks of soldiers who have left their wives and children at home to go and fight in a just war. You are picturing ranks of children who have been abducted, intimidated, scared, orphaned, drugged, raped, dragged, and pressured into joining the ranks of corrupt militaries, militias and gangs, and the result of this involvement will scar all 300 000 of them for the rest of their lives. Consider these facts, and ask yourself: what can we do for these children? Should we bear responsibility for them once the dust settles and they are set free?
To answer these questions, we need only to consider the future, and contemplate a world once these former child soldiers have grown up without our help. These children, reared in the midst of warfare, some knowing only how to resort to violence, will grow up and become the leaders of a region that must not know any more bloodshed and death. The consequences of their worsening state are dire, and even though Africa or Asia may seem far away, we must take on a certain responsibility to rehabilitate these former warriors. It is for our own good and the good of the countries and continents these children inhabit.
Ruthie Ackerman, in her article "Scars and Stripes", details the life of former child soldiers who have been severely disabled as a result of their troubled past. There is much information detailing the plight of these former soldiers and why so little is being done to truly rehabilitate them. Money is always a factor, and some countries are simply unable to receive the aid they need in order to set up rehabilitation centers. Military programs often take priority over rehabilitation or civilian programs, and so money is not always spent effectively. People are starving on the streets and desperate to survive on whatever they can find that will give them subsistence. Children are equally susceptible to these needs, and so they turn primarily to institutions that simply give them a means to live, regardless of whether that life is worth living or not. In many cases, especially in war torn countries, these children turn to the military establishment.
Ishmael Beah is but one example of a child soldier from Sierra Leone. In his book A Long Way Gone, he details his experience as a child soldier, and wrote that in a time of war, after the murder of his parents and siblings, he turned to the military for help. The military inherently resumes full control over the destinies of children like Beah. They intimidate them, desensitize them to war, show them how to kill, train them to use AK47s, and heavily drug these children. One need only imagine the consequences of such actions. The children are trained to patrol the streets and territories of war-torn countries, shoot on sight, and if they disobey the commands of a superior, they themselves are killed. This becomes a child's world, and anything that exists outside of it is simply a hallucination or dream.
Suddenly, the conflict ends. There is no more fighting, and the children again must adapt, learning to survive, this time in an unfamiliar, civilized world. Little chance of survival is found on the streets at home and, as Ackerman so brutally details, former combatants look to the conflicts of neighboring countries. They know how to fight, and understand that they can be an asset to either side of the conflict. They also know that fighting, in a twisted sense, means survival, food, shelter and clothing, at least for the time being. So they move to the next conflict, in a new country, and descend into the horrors of war once again, this time seeking economic opportunity.
This is the life of a child soldier, and so naturally if there is no rescue, no rehabilitation, and no chance for them to enter civil society, they will become the warlords of the future. They will be fighters forever, trained with rogue techniques, and with little sense of what is ethical and moral. Furthermore, they will reflect upon their personal histories, and look to recruit other child soldiers as this life seemed to work for them, or at least enable them to get by. It is a cycle that must not be repeated, and can be stopped with our direct intervention. There are already organizations on the ground like UNICEF, who has accomplished an immense amount of work, and they must be given our support for what they are doing. They are, in essence, saving us.
You may think this is a bit over dramatic. How are our lives necessarily endangered by the fighting done by children thousands of miles away in a place that you have likely never heard of? The truth is that what happens in the world is our responsibility. It is our responsibility because we are fortunate to be living at a time when, true, there is more devastation and destruction that we could ever have imagined, but at the same time, our world is rapidly shrinking, and we have the ability to do more now than we have before. We can send money, we ourselves can volunteer, and we can do more to help save these children whose youth was stolen from them to simply aid in the horrific intentions of a warlord, politician, diamond merchant, or an entire state. Our mindset must not be whether or not we should be responsible for rehabilitating these youths. Our logic must be: we can, therefore we will, and we must.
At the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London, England, there is a display of African artwork. One vivid painting shows a child soldier, surrounded by the most beautiful flowers and scenery, in full military attire, with a pistol held by a hand behind him, an AK47 on his other side, and a phone on his belt. His hands are also held up, in a surrender position. Cheri Samba, the artist, has written at his feet, "I am for peace, that is why I like weapons." This is what they are taught, and it is clearly a lesson that must be altered for a peaceful future. This painting so clearly captures why the responsibility to help these children lies in our hands. Our abilities influence our actions, and we therefore have the power to help. Whether that means taking these children into our homes and show them a civil society, bring them to our countries and help them fit into institutions, or to just send money or volunteer at shelters and clinics that are established on their home soil, we must help. The nature of the deed may change, but the fact is unalterable that we must resume the responsibility of implementing such change.
The United Nations has spent much time considering the issue of child soldiers, and the rules are, when possible, enforced. In the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is clearly stated that rehabilitation is required for those children affected by participation in warfare, offered by the states from which the children emerge. These states unfortunately will not necessarily abide by these rules. They are either morally or economically depleted, and these children must therefore turn elsewhere. So, what responsibility does the world bear for rehabilitating child soldiers? We bear a huge responsibility so that we can knowingly reflect on the fact that we did not sit idly by while children are trained to hate instead of love, kill instead of nurture, and value war over peace.
300 000 is a number that can bring about peace in our time. When 300 000 children grow up and learn what is morally correct in a life separated from war, they have the potential to generate goodness. Let us, as a global community, bear full responsibility for this number, and strive to help every child with a misguided youth achieve their full potential to help create a peaceful international community.
