Unaccompanied Minors part 1
News / Affero, Child Soldiers, education
Written by: Steven McLaughlin
My challenge at the Affero project is to be able to help educate some of our readers on the different causes we want to help out with. My general knowledge on the subjects is/was just that, general. Since I began writing on this blog I have been blown away by how deep and dark some of these problems are that we want to help with. While we tend to be a light hearted group of people, these causes can leave one heavy hearted after enough time is spent learning and researching them. I believe for myself no other subject has moved me, changed me and disturbed me quite as much as the subject of child soldiers. Some numbers estimate that currently over 300,00 children under the age of 17 are forced into armed conflicts and UNICEF estimates that in the past decade 2 million such children have died in these conflicts, millions more have been left as refugees, disabled or orphaned.
Charles London’s “One Day the Soldiers Came” is an in depth view into the world of refugee children that I have thoroughly enjoyed. There have been times where I felt I just could not read any further, didn’t want to read any further, or was embarrassed at my own ignorance to the subject as a whole. Overall it’s been a great resource to finding out more about how refugee children end up as mass murdering soldiers.
One quote in particular from the beginning of the book has stood out to me, London says, “They’ve fought in different armies and come from different parts of the country. Fate has thrown them into this center together, turned them into a group, labeled child soldiers or ex-combatants or in some documents “youth who participate in conflict.” The labels tell you little. In the language of humanitarian aid, there are many categories for children; Street children, Internally Displaced children, Child Soldiers, Child Heads of Household, Unaccompanied Minors, Children in Conflict with the Law, Children Affected by HIV, Children Accused of Sorcery. Categorization is a way of processing children for targeted assistance in crisis situations.” I think this stuck in my head for so long because it communicates how wide and varied the experiences of child soldiers are and how different societies view them in different contexts.
One of the most difficult aspects for me to understand as I was researching this is that the idea of childhood is significantly relative to different cultures. It seems the more a culture values education, the more that society develops a set of rules to protect children. While the correlation of childhood and education may seem to be obvious to some, I think it only feels that way because of an ingrained western cultural standard. When I think collectively about every child I’ve ever known personally, from my own childhood on, I met almost all of them through an education system of some sort, whether it was through my own school or school’s I volunteered at or taught at. In our society education and childhood go hand in hand like facebook and birthday wishes.
My guess is that many of you reading this know a child. I know it’s a stretch to make that assumption, but I’m going to go ahead and exercise my creative judgment here and go with that assumption. Being a teacher I have gotten to know quite a few kids in the short time I have been in the education system, and I have to say that I can’t imagine any of them are ready to face war. I don’t know that anyone ever really is adequately prepared to give their life for some idea of patriotism or what is right versus what is wrong in some political argument that largely doesn’t concern their best interests. But this is what happens every day throughout the world in countries and territories that may take more than one attempt for you to pronounce the name of the land correctly. Our hope at Affero is that we can help out in some way by giving our combined efforts and resources to some people who are already on the front lines of this subject. I hate to end this with a cheesy quote, but Helen Keller once said “the highest result of education is tolerance.” And I couldn’t agree with that more than I do right now.
That about wraps it up for me for this week, next week I’ll be back with more on this subject.
Steve
Rob Harvey
Right on, Steve. This is a HUGE issue.
I’ve personally worked with Project AK-47 for years, particularly on their efforts in Southeast Asia, where there are over 100,000 child soldiers.
PROJECT: AK-47 exists because an AK-47 should never be in the hands of a child. Folks can watch this video at this link to learn more http://bit.ly/cX3I6z or go to there website at http://www.ProjectAK47.com. Great stuff!
Steven Von Glahn
I have been reading all of your blogs and I must say I have enjoyed all of them. I think one thing that draws me to them is that I am also and educator and these hit close to home. This however was my favorite so far. The subject I teach in school is Social Studies but one of the classes I teach is Current Social Issues. I do not know much about this issue but it one that will be sure to look into more and I hope to use the information I learn in my own classroom. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to reading more.
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