Child Soldiers

For the past 20 years there have been devastating events occurring in Uganda, Africa. I know, I know, another African crisis. People are often turned off by trying to help Africa because it seems like such a hopeless continent and it seems as if our efforts would be wasted. The AIDS epidemic is rampaging and poverty levels are increasingly drastically every day. As terrible as these problems are, there is a much more grave situation that is not as well known.

Children are being abducted left and right by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is a rebel group that has been fighting against the Government of Uganda (GOU) for the past 20 years. 1.7 million people have been forced into displacement camps because the LRA have destroyed all of their property and belongings. Families are being torn apart because the LRA storm into villages and take as many children as they see fit. They do not care about destroying villages or how many people they have to kill in the process. All they care about is obtaining children that they can brainwash and turn into killing machines. Young boys are converted into soldiers and laborers and young girls are taken and forced to act as sex slaves.

In high school I was involved with the Club for Uganda, which was started to promote awareness about the situation in Uganda. With this program we were each assigned a pen pal. I was introduced to Yoloki Joy in my junior year and have been in contact with her ever since. She grew up during the rise of the LRA and a raid occurred in the village right next to hers. Her father decided that the safest thing for their family was to move to Sudan. If you know anything about Sudan, you know that it is not a safe country either. But in the case of Yoloki’s family, it was better than being in Uganda. Thousands of other families have been forced to relocate just to protect their children and get away from the war.

It is estimated that 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since the war began. Once these children are brutally stripped from their families, they are surrounded by strong forceful men that instill fear into the children. They are beaten and forced into submission. The LRA often drug the children with heroin to get them to comply with their demands easier. Once they are absolutely terrified and brainwashed, the LRA start teaching the children how to fight and shoot people. They are made numb to performing acts of violence and their innocence is completely taken away from them. It has gotten to the point where 5-year-old children are turned into snipers and 8-year-olds are committing mass murders in their villages. It is absolutely sick and disturbing. The children are taught that the LRA are their new families and that their old families are weak and poor and do not deserve to live. A twisted camaraderie bond is formed between the children soldiers and the leaders of the LRA, and often times children are forced to kill their own family members. The 2006 film Blood Diamond shows this in a hauntingly realistic way. Although Blood Diamond takes place in Sierra Leone in 1999, which is another African country, it depicts the same problem that is occurring in Uganda now.





An example of a child soldier in Uganda

If a child goes missing in America, the police are notified immediately and search parties are sent out for days, maybe even weeks, until the child is found. Although missing children in America are not always found, great efforts are made by the police force to find the child. The exact opposite happens in Uganda. A child is taken, and although the family is devastated, there is no federal action taken to get the child back. It has happen so frequently that it almost seems like an acceptable practice and nothing can be done to stop it from occurring. It is clear that Uganda is not capable of stopping this from occurring themselves. They are crying out for help, yet people are just ignoring their pleas.

So why is it that the American government has not stepped in to stop this disastrous behavior from happening? Is it because we don’t have the means to send American troops to stop the fighting? With the current War on Terror taking place in the Middle East, we just don’t have the manpower to make a mark on the Ugandan crisis. Is it because we can’t afford to get involved in another foreign crisis? The American economy is an absolute mess and funding a mission to Africa would cause our nation to go into further debt. Or is it simply because the American government just doesn’t care? That since the predicament in Uganda does not directly affect Americans and Uganda does not have any resources that we want, there is no point for us to try and help Uganda out. It seems that the only reason the American government will approve us getting involved in anything foreign is if America will benefit in some way or another. There is no selfless acts done by the American government—everything that we do for other countries has ulterior motives. I guess there are many factors that play into this, but regardless, a country is in a state of turmoil and panic and all that America has done is close their eyes to the stark reality of the extreme human injustice occurring.

There are some organizations in America that are trying to help the situation as much as they can. One such organization is Invisible Children. Invisible Children is a non-profit organization that was started to help the victims of child abduction. The children that are rescued from the terrible lifestyle they were forced into get the opportunity to go to school and live as normal of a life as possible. The families that have had children abducted are taken into refugee camps and are given work. All of this was made possible by Invisible Children. Although the help from one organization is great, it is not enough. Invisible Children works to help the victims of this crisis, which is wonderful, but someone else needs to step up and stop this problem from occurring in the first place. Once the LRA is out of power, Uganda can be restored into a peaceful nation.



I am not exactly sure what I am suggesting as the solution to this problem. Even if America would decide to step in, we could not do it alone. And the United Nations really has done nothing in recent years to secure peace in the world, so they would not be of much help either. Maybe after reading this you will be inspired to donate money to Invisible Children or various other organizations whose specific goal is to stop the abduction of children. Maybe you will tell your family and friends about what is occurring. Or maybe you will continue with your daily life unphased by the information I have given you. Whatever the case may be I urge everyone to raise awareness about Uganda in hopes to restore it to a peaceful nation.

For further information on Invisible Children, visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php.