You may have heard of child labour. Child labour is the act of putting children in risky or lifethreatning situations and making them do physical labour. Not only is this morally wrong it is also traumatic for the young children and a violation of human rights. Although there are many types of child labour,Today I’m focusing on one of these in particular and that is child soldiers. What is a child soldier you might be wondering, or maybe you already have an idea of what it means to be one. A child soldier is a minor under the age of 18 who is being used by the government or by a smaller group to serve in combat. Since 2002 up to 2022 over 122,000 child soldiers have been confirmed, however this number is estimated to be much larger because many child soldiers are not registered. Most of these cases of child soldiers come from a region known as the Sahal because of ongoing fighting since 2012. Many join because poverty makes this their only choice in order to support their family but others are forced to join because of tactics like manipulation or even kidnapping. First hand testimonies describe this experience as “Being a child in war is difficult. You learn to function in madness very quickly. You have to adapt to your situation in order to survive, and often you are exposed to extreme levels of violence you have never even heard of,”- Ishmael Beah, former child soldier.
Ishmeal also wrote a book titled “A long way gone” about his experiences as a child in the war. This book is what introduced me to this issue, it left me wondering, why have I never heard of anyone talking about this especially because situations like the ones mentioned in the book are still happening today. For example I had heard of other forms of child labour but never this. This left me wondering how many others like me were also oblivious to this issue, this is why I chose this topic so that I could also educate others who were probably unaware of this issue.
Now that I have shed light on this issue you might be like me and wondering, how can I help? Well, the hard truth is that war is a very difficult thing for one person to solve. Instead of attempting to stop the wars happening right now, we can help rehabilitate child soldiers that have survived. By donating to organizations such as unicef you can be able to help. Although what may seem like the main struggle might be over for former child soldiers the rehabilitation process is very difficult so this is why it’s so important for organizations to have the proper funding needed to help these children. Because they are often left very traumatized and left with mental scars such as ptsd which leads to difficulty reentering the real world. Not only this but children can be shamed and ostracized when they return to their village or family, this only leads to more trauma and leaves the child in a worse mental state. This is why I urge you to donate to these organizations, they use the funds to create safe places for the children to live and to help reunite them with their families, so please consider donating to keep these places open because they serve as a form of hope for victims.
Another thing that you can do is try to encourage your local governments to educate youth by posting on social media to raise awareness or even simply writing them a letter, especially if you live in countries where there is ongoing conflict. If children know that agreeing to become a soldier is a violation of their rights and in the end all that trauma is never going to be worth it for just a bit of money, they might think twice before accepting. They need to know how badly they will be treated and how they would witness so much violence and injustice. I know that this wouldn’t stop all new cases of child soldiers but it would help lower them. Think about it, if you knew your government incentive could save the lives of children why wouldn’t you help fund it.
Amalia Lechuga – Saint Ignatius College Prep – DMSF Class of 2029
Photo Credit: Meysam Azarneshin – Adobe Stock