Child Soldiers in DR Congo: a first-hand story of fear and redemption
For the last week, our CEO, Justin, has been out in the Democratic Republic of Congo seeing some of the work we’ve been doing to help across so many different areas.
As he prepared to leave for home, Justin sent us these reflections on his last day in DR Congo and the children he met who just months before had been fighting as men, despite being as young as 11. It’s stark reading and a powerful reminder of the work we do, but also what remains to be done.
By Justin Byworth, CEO, World Vision UK
Goma, north Kivu, DR Congo and Gisenyi, Rwanda,
Tuesday 24th January, 2013
“I was on my way home from school when they grabbed me. They threw my school books on the ground and marched me into the forest. They said here is your gun, take it. Here is your uniform, put it on. You belong to us. I was 11.”
Amani and his friend Dunia are now 16 and just two of 69 boys in this small village in eastern Congo that have had their childhoods stolen by war. Life as a child soldier is close to hell.
“I would rather die than go back to the army,” Dunia told me. “We had to guard our chief while he raped women, I remember one who looked like my mother, I saw it all in front of me, it was so bad.”
Dunia’s features were hardened but as he spoke his eyes glistened. I thought of my youngest son, Luke, who’s just turned 11. He walks to and from school each day with his worst fear that his friends might tease him, or his teacher tell him off if he’s not done his homework. I can almost feel the fear that Amani’s mother and father must have had that day he didn’t return from school.
Dunia tells us how scared he was when the enemy attacked, “I was afraid but we couldn’t show it. The others had been soldiers since Mobutu’s time, I had to pretend I was tough even seeing all this blood.”
All children should be able to live free from fear. Free to play, to learn, to know the love, care and protection of a family and a home. This time of innocence has been defiled for thousands of children in eastern Congo. It is about as far as imaginable from World Vision’s goal of fullness of life for every child. Our work to protect and transform the world’s most vulnerable children has rarely felt more crucial.
Thank God that Amani and Dunia escaped and after a year of support in a UN run transition camp, they were reunited with their families. “My mother was so happy when she saw me, that she killed their goat, we had a party. I was so happy.”
Dunia’s description of this joyful moment brings to mind the image of the father running to throw his arms around his the returning prodigal son in my very favourite of Jesus’ stories, “This son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.”
Even back home, though, they still need support and protection. Dunia tells us how his two big brothers are helping him settle back into their family after a brutalising four years away. Amani says that many in their community are suspicious of them if anything is stolen in the village, once he was arrested and beaten by the police.
The greatest hope of Dunia, Amani and the 30 former child soldiers we met in their village is for a better future. “We need to find work or go back to school, we must do something positive with our lives.”
Just two minutes walk down the dusty road I am surrounded by hundreds of singing, dancing, joyful children, from toddlers to teenagers all gathered in and around the ‘child friendly space’ that World Vision and UNICEF run together here. The contrast is immense.
This is a place where children can be children. 14 year old Esperance’s smile is huge as she tells me, “We are safe here from abuse, abduction and abandonment.”
The parents say, “Our children have changed and so have we – we want to be better parents.”
In one section of the large tent I join nearly 50 little ones between 3 and 7 who are waving white pieces of drawing paper above their heads and cheering ‘jambo mizungu’ (hello white man!). Their teacher explains how at first they drew pictures of guns and fighting, but that just a few months later the drawings are all of homes, gardens, chickens, children playing, as I see when many thrust them into my hands.
Older children are learning tailoring or weaving and there’s a teenage discussion group talking about children’s rights, relationships and sexual health. More than 2,300 children in the 6 child friendly spaces World Vision runs here are experiencing something much closer to how childhood should be.
As I rest my weary head on the pillow in a few minutes after a long last day in eastern Congo my thoughts, prayers and dreams will be full of the smiles and songs of Esperance and her friends there, and of Dunia and Amani safely back with their families.
Part of Justin’s trip centred on this week’s launch of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign and he spoke about his experiences on Radio 4′s The Sunday Programme this morning. You can listen to it again on BBC iPlayer.
He also shared some other thoughts and stories from his trip with both the Huffington Post and the Independent during the week. Click the links to read them.
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