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Remembering the Wars of Today

Remembrance Day is this Thursday. For most of us, that means your standard assembly: poppies on the left hand side, no clapping, some leadership students playing a Power Point while they recite In Flanders Fields. Sitting in your school gym, the World Wars can seem like distant memories, historic events from 60 years ago, and with fewer and fewer remaining veterans each year, it’s a struggle to personalize the ceremonies.

The truth is, however, that Remembrance Day is just as relevant today as it ever has been. The Stolkholm Peace Research Institute states that there were 17 major armed conflicts worldwide in 2009. This means that, at this very moment, there are lives being risked and lost in 17 different wars.

Perhaps the most daunting statistic is not just how many wars are occurring, however, but how many children are involved in these conflicts. According to a recent Toronto Star article, there are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers world-wide, in 35 different conflicts.

These children are, usually, abducted from rural villages or Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps. They are indoctrinated into the armies through violent practices aimed at desensitising the youth. Many are forced to watch or take part in the murders of family members, friends, or neighbours. Often, they are drugged, develop addictions, and then count on the army to supply them with narcotics.

Children make ideal targets because they are easily impressionable, and the development of lightweight weaponry makes it possible for them to be armed. Children learn to feel a sense of belonging in the army, and senior officers become father figures.

Understandably, rehabilitation of child soldiers is a difficult task. If they survive the lifestyle long enough to be rescued, they deal with unimaginable psychological damage. One former child soldier who has shed light on the abuses he suffered is Ishmael Beah. At the age of thirteen, Beah was captured and forced into becoming a soldier. He was drugged with a mixture of cocaine and gun powder, called "brown brown", and forced to commit acts of violence to initiate him into the rebel forces. During this period of his life, he killed more people than he could count.

Fortunately, Beah was rescued by UNICEF and rehabilitated. He eventually was adopted by an American family and his biography, A Long Way Gone, is famous world-wide for its truthful and moving account of life as a child soldier.

Ishmael Beah’s story is proof that, even sixty years after WWII began, the search for peace continues.

So next time Remembrance Day seems irrelevant, think of Ishmael Beah. And this Thursday, when you’re sitting in your gym, remembering the sacrifices our veterans made in the past, don’t forget about the sacrifices children like you are making in the present.

If you want to learn more about child soldiers and find out how you can raise money towards school building in areas hardest hit by modern day conflicts, please visit www.invisiblechildren.com.