According to Amnesty International, over 300,000 children are now fighting in armed conflicts around the world. Poverty, discrimination, insecurity, and hunger compel children to join armed groups. Once recruited (or abducted), children are often forced to kill their family or neighbors, thereby making a return to their village impossible.

Innocent and vulnerable, especially in times of conflict, children can be easily manipulated and drawn into violence. The availability of inexpensive and light arms (that even 8-year-old boys can handle) also tends to increase the number of children involved in the fighting.

The problem of child soldiers does not go away once armed conflicts end. Because former child soldiers are often addicted to drugs, forced to commit atrocities, traumatized, raped and otherwise abused, they have difficulties reintegrating into daily village life.

Several demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs have been established. One is the Ajedi-Ka/Child Soldier Project, which promotes the rights of children affected by armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where tens of thousands of children have been recruited as combatants during a decades-long civil war.

Meanwhile, the African Child Soldiers and War Victims Charity plans to build a home for former child soldiers in Kigali, Rwanda. The project was founded by China Keitetsi, herself a former child soldier and author of the best-selling They Took My Mother and Gave Me a Gun. Planned in cooperation with the International Catholic Mission (Missio München), the home will accommodate 15 children aged 8 to 18 years, and enable their reintegration and independence.

www.ajedika.org
www.chinakeitetsi.info