Children Involved In Sierra Leone's War

During the early 1990s, there was a war occurring in Sierra Leone. Today, right across the border in Mexico, us citizens face the same problem. There is a war between the government and the rebels. In Sierra Leone the rebels were considered the RUF, but in Mexico they are known as the Zetas, a large drug cartel. People face the results of this war every day. Both wars are fairly similar, but many people have been affected in different ways. Children that encountered being split from their families, forced into the role of soldiers, and later rehabilitated were altogether largely affected by the wars. Whether the children were from Sierra Leone or Mexico, when the war began they were ultimately split from their families. Most of the people

In Sierra Leone kids were either recruited into the RUF or the government soldiers. They usually were as young as nine years old. When recruited into the RUF, kids had no other choice but to join them. If the children refused, they were killed on the spot. Government soldiers took on a different method for recruiting and used a fear tactic. The soldiers said that they were the good guys fighting the men that killed the kids’ families. It was either join the government soldiers or starve and get killed eventually by the RUF. Most children, upset about their families deaths, chose to avenge them by fighting with the government soldiers, only of course, if the child had the opportunity. To make the children able to fight, the soldiers gave them drugs, resulting in an addiction. The child soldiers were growing in numbers and feared by many people. Citizens began to assume that all children were soldiers. When people heard that “boys” were coming their way, they fled for safety. Kids were usually helpless and just looking for help. Drug cartels used a similar style of recruitment that was unique in its own way. Like in Sierra Leone, the kids were often kidnapped when recruited. The kids had a lot of power and were feared by the common people. Similar to the kids in Sierra Leone, the children in Mexico were on drugs. Unfortunately, even the soldiers could not be trusted. The government soldiers killed many kids in Mexico. Even

In Sierra Leone people from UNICEF rescued child soldiers and took them to the country’s capital. The kids were not confined like in a prison and attended school while there. The facility had nurses and other people to help the kids. At the beginning of the kid’s rehabilitation it was a difficult transition going from violence to peace, especially when the rehab center had members of the RUF too. The center was successful and did help many children transition back into the life of a normal child. In Mexico there is a woman named Mama Lupita that opened an orphanage. Her doors are open for all children and she has plenty of food for all. It is a way for children to escape violence and receive an education. Mama Lupita’s orphanage was not much, but it at least kept them out of the violence and kept food in their stomachs. This shows how willing some citizens were to open their doors to complete strangers. It was very generous of Mama Lupita to help so many children when she herself was trying to survive. Rehabilitation centers were a place of safety and a stepping stone for child soldiers to enter back into the real