Sierra+Leone+-+AZ+-+FA10


 * Sierra Leone ** //Use of Child Soldiers // **﻿ **

  **Primary Sources:** “Children in the Crossfire: Prevention and Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers” by U. S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L.  Chao U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao's speech to a group of powerful politicians, through the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, explains the horrifying, yet true, experiences of child soldiers - not just from Sierra Leone, but also Burundi, Colombia, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and Uganda. She explained the international effort to end the use of child soldiers, through major organizations such as UNICEF, and detailed how certain countries coincide to carry out two global initiatives - one at $13 million and one at $7 million, in order to encourage the rehabilitation of these children back into their societies.

Blood Never Dry: Child Soldiers in Africa﻿ This article, about the special feature found on the DVD of one of television's most popular shows, 24, gives excerpts from the diaries of real-life child soldiers. Unlike articles or speeches or books written about child soldiers, these are the children speaking, rather than an author. Their words are not twisted, but are exactly as they saw things. Reading the children's views and memories gives a better understanding of the horrors they experienced and what went through their minds as things happened. Inside the RUF: at last the child soldiers of Sierra Leone have their say This article gives the rare view of female child soldiers, who are usually put through more horrifying experiences than boys, because they are used as sex slaves. The children in the article who were once soldiers explain their lives today in a peaceful Sierra Leonean society. It describes how, despite international efforts, many child soldiers are not rehabilitated, and are usually shunned by their communities and left to live alone.
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The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier Ishmael Beah, famous for his book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier, explains his experience as a soldier for Sierra Leone, from the time he was a 13-year-old boy when his country was peaceful, to the atrocities he was forced to commit, to his rehabilitation and move to the United States. He now has a foster family, a college education, and a good job working to promote human rights, specializing in child soldiers. Though he shows that it is not impossible to heal children once involved in war, Beah's circumstances were extremely rare and show how fortunate he was. media type="youtube" key="Ve42DWluB8A" width="425" height="350"  A direct interview of former child soldiers and their present-day teachers details what the children actually went through, like being injected with heroin, threatened, and eventually brainwashed to fight. Filmed two years before the war's end in 2002, the documentary also explains Sierra Leone's plentiful natural resources, and what drove the country to madness: their biggest resource, diamonds. It shows how devastated Sierra Leoneans were during and after, and how children are rehabilitated today, through Christian schools.