KEY POINTS:
Child protection expert Dr Mike Wessells of Columbia University recently visited New Zealand as a guest of ChildFund New Zealand to share his expertise and draw attention to the plight of the world's so-called lost generation - formerly recruited child soldiers.
"Commanders recruit children because they are readily available, easy to terrorise and manipulate, and provide excellent sources of free labour. In Sierra Leone, for example, boys and girls were abducted to fight on all sides, and injected with drugs or given alcohol to give them courage," says Dr Wessells.
Surprisingly, girls comprise 40 per cent of all child combatants in armed groups, where they are used as porters, cooks, sex slaves and fighters. When the fighting stops, however, girls are often left out of the formal processes of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration. One of the reasons is that many abducted girls have no weapons to turn in to prove they were in an armed group.
In Sierra Leone, six years after the war ended, ChildFund has identified several thousand formerly recruited girls, who have received no reintegration support and live in very difficult circumstances with many trying to provide for children they have had as a result of being raped. They suffer rights violations on a significant scale, being feared by local villagers and their own families because of their unruly behaviour.
Girls have reported experiencing anguish, flashbacks, shame, and being unable to have normal relationships. Girls forced to carry and bear the children of their aggressors can suffer depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, and anger.
"Lacking life skills and literacy and living in abject poverty, many girls ask how they can survive in the civilian world," says Dr Wessells. "But with appropriate support we have found that former child soldiers can become valuable and respected members of their communities, leading peaceful and productive lives."
Dr Wessells has helped to develop community-based programmes that assist these girls, their families and communities in Sierra Leone and other countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, and Indonesia.
Sierra Leone, in particular, is one of the poorest countries in the world where people expect not to live much beyond 40 years. In 2004, it was at the very bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
* Dr Mike Wessells visited New Zealand in May in his role as ChildFund's Senior Child Protection Advisor to share his expertise with international aid and development agencies based here. He is a professor at Columbia University, an advisor to the United Nations and governments, and an author of several books. His most recent book, published last year, is Child Soldiers: from Violence to Protection.
* ChildFund is working with local communities in Sierra Leone to reintegrate 600 girl victims of the civil war, along with their 2,400 children and provide these girls with access to health care, livelihood skills and income, support their rights and improve child protection. Donations to the ChildFund New Zealand Sierra Leone Appeal can be made at www.childfund.org.nz or phone 0800 223 111.
