Ten Years Old and Already an Adult
By Tom Moor
Children worldwide are being taken off the streets and grabbed from schools, given a gun, and shoved into combat zones.
200,000 to 300,000 children are currently enrolled in militaries and rebel groups. Forced to do whatever ordered or threatened with death, they go wherever and do whatever extremely dangerous jobs. Some are never able to cope with the things they’ve done. Children are used to seek out mines, spy on opposing forces, and girls are used as sex slaves. They miss out on education because of lack of money, military drafting, and racism.
Child soldiers. How could someone kidnap a young boy or girl and put them against grown men in combat. How could someone be THAT cruel to children?
In the heart of diamond country, Sierra Leone, there are children being kidnapped at home or at school and drafted into the military.
A recorded 7,000 children fought in the war in Sierra Leone. Now they are being taken out of combat and put into education centers. “Shepler's research in Sierra Leone explored the plight of children being demobilized and returning after months or years to civilian life.” -Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations
A problem in many countries that is finally beginning to get some attention
All of a children’s rights are being broken when he or she is put into military service at such a young age. But the right that is most violated is protection from neglect and cruelty. They are neglected by the schools because of lack of money or race. With nowhere else to go they are grabbed from the streets or homes and forced into the military. Forced to Witness and commit acts of horror.
“More than 11,000 children fight in Colombia's armed conflict, one of the highest totals in the world. Both guerrilla and paramilitary forces rely on child combatants, who have committed atrocities and are even made to execute other children who try to desert. The first...