At age 13, most children are hanging out with friends and are worried about getting all their homework done. Ishmael Beah was carrying an AK-47 and fighting in a civil war in his home country of Sierra Leone.
Beah will talk about his years as a child soldier and his rehabilitation tonight at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. In 2007, he wrote the book A Long Way Gone about his experiences.
Although the conflict in Sierra Leone officially ended in 2002, child soldiers are still being used in more than 30 different conflicts in countries such as Uganda, Sudan and the Congo. It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, according to UNICEF.
Most child soldiers are captured by rebel armies with low budgets and are forced to kill people against their will, said Steve Howard, director of African Studies.
Children can be easily kidnapped and they are very vulnerable to persuasion or brainwashing
Howard said. Children are also used because they are small and can crawl through underbrush and sneak into places.
Being a child soldier causes intense psychological damage and most young people affected need treatment at a rehabilitation center, Howard said. Although these facilities are available to some children, the best solution is to stop the conflicts that are causing armies to need children, he said.
The first step to ending these conflicts is to educate people about child soldiers, said Natalie Spears, a senior studying political science and founder of the Ohio University group Invisible Children.
Spears created the group after learning about the international Invisible Children movement - a non-profit organization founded by three filmmakers who made a documentary about child soldiers in northern Uganda. They decided to create Invisible Children to raise awareness about the situation in Uganda and other conflicts, Spears said.
She said she hopes Beah's speech will inspire more people to learn about them.
We hear and read about it but none of us has ever actually met a child affected she said. He can help put a face to the children we are trying to help.
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Culture
Anna Sudar
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Ishmael Beah will speak about his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone and his recovery tonight at Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium.
