As I was watching Pray the Devil Back to Hell and other news clips from Liberia's civil wars, some of the images that I felt the strongest reaction to were of the young fighters. It's commonly known that so many of these boys were recruited/conscripted inappropriately, given drugs, and manipulated to do terrible things. Looking into their eyes, even by video, is heartbreaking.
As a fairly new mom of a fantastic boy, I don't know what I would do if my son were in that situation. In my imagination, of course, I would kill to prevent him from being hurt in that way. (Perhaps we can analyze that violent protective instinct in a later post?)
This film, Child Soldiers Cry, (which I'm unfortunately not able to embed here) offers a good look at this situation in Liberia.
Watch Child Soldiers Cry
The work of Liberians and the international community to rehabilitate these child soldiers is so important. I think that honoring that work on a day like today is right thing to do. Please share your thoughts by commenting.
When we were working with the Liberian women's NGOs helping them to find 5 things that they could all agree on as women for the country, they came up with this idea. Remember 40% of "women" 8 and over have been raped by young soldiers and they hate and fear them. They agreed, reluctantly, that a condition for a microloan for women must be that they hire a former child soldier. They know it is the only way to reintegrate them into society, community. The women will, again, pay the price to reconstruct the country.
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