What I'd like to accomplish.

I started another survey feel free to leave some feedback of your own. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7ZM256V

Here are some statistics from the survey so far.
1) What do you think a child soldier is?

    a. Some one under the age of 18 involved in a militant movement.  

    b. Some one under the age of 18 who has access to a fire arm.

84% of people who took the survey thought a was the most accurate definition, and they would be correct. 

The last few questions will have the percentage next to the answer. 

2) Are you aware of any countries that have children involved in a militant force?

     a. Yes__66%

     b. No__17%

     c. I'm not sure__17%

3) How do you believe child soldiers are created? (You may choose more that one)
     a. Abducted__100%          
     b. Voluntarily enlisted__66%
     c. Born into it__50%
     d. They believe in the cause__17%
     e. They have nowhere else to go__66%
Everyone who took the survey thought that children were abducted and forced into it, and very few thought that the children believed in the cause. 

4) What do you feel would be the best form of rehabilitation for an ex-child soldier, so they would be able to return to a normal life? (You may choose more than one)
a. Psychological treatment__83%
b. Physical treatment__50%
c. Nothing would be required__0%
d. Interaction with "normal" children__34%
I was surprised to see that the psychological treatment wasn't at 100% and that the interaction with other children was so low. The interaction with "normal" children is a staple in centers in Uganda.

5) Have you ever seen a movie that had child soldiers in it? If yes than what was it?
    a. No__20%
    b. not sure__80%
    c. Yes (comment field)
Only one person gave a name of a movie, "Hotel Rwanda". Also I think I need to edit this question, the percentages don't add up.

6) If you ran a country that had a militant force that was turning civilians into fighters, how would you deal with it?
a. I'm not sure__100%
b. I wouldn't__0%
c. I'd like to be specific (comment field)__0%
No one had any idea how to deal with an internal fighting force. I don't blame them neither do I, that's why i put this question in the survey. 

I've been putting a lot of thought into what I would like to accomplish with this blog and the information with in it. I've been taking you through the lives of child soldiers from abduction, to escape, through their rehabilitation and their challenges they return to when they finally return home. 

What I've come up with is there needs to be a major push for education for children. Just like anywhere, the amount of education you have directly effects your income. The average annual income in Uganda is $1,124. The amount of school age children who don't have access to schooling is upwards of 70 million... that's 70,000,000 children. The United States is helping, in 2011 USAID's spent $197.2 million in helping Uganda from anything to peace and security, economic development, and even education.  will start a revolutionary chain reaction by empowering the people of Uganda while simultaneously stimulating their economy. This economic stimulation will then put money into the coffers of the government, and they in turn can use it to fight these rebel militant movements that plague their country. 

                Children in Uganda with their new backpacks full of school supplies funded by USAID.



http://results.usaid.gov/uganda
Articles that are detected to the USAID towards Uganda with a dollar brake down towards the programs it was spent on. 

http://results.usaid.gov/uganda/education-and-social-services/basic-education
Picture of children holding new backpacks.

Questions

I was asked a few questions that I would like to address.

Are these reintegration clinics far away from where they are abducted?

Unfortunetly yes, there are only two active rehabilitation centers left in northern Uganda, the World Vision Reception Centre and the Gulu Support the Children Organization or GUSCO. Which means, on average, there is one center every 16,484 square miles. Sadly Paddy Mugalula, the World Vision’s program manager, announced the possible closure of the World Vision Reception Center. Since 1994 these two centers have helped reintegrate some 25,000 former militants and abdicates. If the World Vision Reception centre closes 18 year old males will have nowhere to turn for help with the reintegration back into society, for the GUSCO only treats children and women. 

How do these rehabilitation centers work towards making sure this doesn't happen to the children again?

These two centers provide some of the same critical services described in previous blog entries. They treat mental trauma such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety as well as physical trauma, wounds, amputations and sexually transmitted diseases.

They also offer training as a means to improve their community, which they were forced to ravage. The centers have training programs in construction, tailoring, mechanics, baking and small business skills. These people are also provided things to help them through their day-to-day living such as farm implements, cooking utensils, blankets and mattresses. They are also the first to contact the community in which the former fighter will be returning to. At which point they explain the situation, and extinguish any ill will towards the actions taken by the abducted so that a seamless and happy reunion can take place. 

These things that the centers provides are essential to making sure these newly reintegrated former fighters don't return to the fight they risked their life's to escape. The skilled training they received will provide food and housing, and the rehabilitation both mentally and socially will form a strong bond within the community. Love from the community and the financial means to take care of themselves fend off the need to return to the violence and pointless fight of the LRA.

http://www.irinnews.org/report/97276/rehabilitation-centre-for-uganda-s-lra-returnees-to-close

 "Humanitarian News and Analysis." IRINnews. IRIN, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 04 Aug. 2013. This is an article about the possible closure of one of the two remaining rehabilitation centers in Northern Uganda due to budget problems 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Region,_Uganda 

"Northern Region, Uganda." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 Mar. 2013. Web. 04 Aug. 2013.

An article with the size of Uganda and population size per district.

New information

It's hard to organize the information I'm coming across. As I am still researching this subject, I come across information that is important but was already touched on previous postings. I find some of this information to be very important I will just touch back on some previously answered questions.

Recruitment:
Children are largely abducted from the northern part of Uganda. These children are often forced to kill friends or family, the Lords of Resistance Army (LRA) uses this act to create a sense that the child will not be accepted back into the community and are therefore forced to rely on the LRA. The newly captive children are bound to their captors by ropes tied around the child's waist while their hands are bound behind their backs. The group then moves towards the boarder Sudan and Uganda. Stopping in other villages along the way for more "recruits". Many of the newly abducted will die along the way, they are not fed or given water. Many will try to escape, but will not be so fortunate. I read an account from a child who was in a rehabilitation center. He saw many people die on this journey. Some from exhaustion, dehydration, but mostly from the brutality of the militants. This child witnessed the forced killings of people by the hands of the children. The children were ofter forced to mutilate the body of the deceased, by means of removing the intestines and wrapping them around their own necks, smearing themselves with blood, and even being forced to drink their blood. This is done so the child will absorb the person strength. Once the group makes it to Sudan the children are taken to training centers to be broken into submission and then sent back into Uganda to complete the never ending cycle of brutality.

Rehabilitation:

I recently watched a couple documentarys that gave a lot of information on how centers deal with the rehabilitation of war affected children. These centers focusses on finding the child's parents as well as the rehabilitation of the child. When talking to the children in the center they have the child draw what they experienced, or in other words they use art therapy. Teaching the children how to manage their anger was found to be a necessary step, since they found a lot of children harbor a strong sense of revenge towards not only their captors but also to other children. The caretakers also preach Forgiveness, reconciliation and love among the children. Forgiveness isn't just meant just for one child to forgive another but for the child to forgive themselves. In this documentary they talked about a child who met the killer of his parents who was also a child in the center. After they shared their experiences they ended up becoming friends. This action also proves one of the centers forms of healing, healing through sharing the burden of suffering, as they referred to it as.

Ex child soldiers visiting a rehabilitation center

The center aims to keep the children active and occupied throughout the day so they can't dwell on the atrocities they were forced too commit. They accomplish this by having dances and showing movies. They also bring children from the outside to interact with the children in the center, commonly in the form of playing soccer. Over the corse of thirteen months the center received 1031 children, eight hundred of which were reunited with their families. Some children's parents are not so understanding of the situation. It is not uncommon for a child to be rejected by their parents after finding out about the acts that were committed. These parents are unable to understand that the child was forced into these horrible situations.

Now to cover new ground. What happens when a child comes back home?
Some times when a child returns home they can be met with hostility by the neighborhood. This is usually the case when the child, upon abduction, is forced to kill a member of the neighborhood and while the child was gone these people, who are unable to see the impossible choice these children had to make, gossip amongst themselves, but announce to others, " so and so killed my brother". These actions when added together further erode the society they live in.
Other times a child is welcomed back with open arms. In these cases when a child has been gone for over a year a ceremony is performed. During this ritual water is sprinkled on the child so all the their misfortune is washed away. Sometimes when the child returns home injured and traditional form of physical healing are not working they will resort to animal sacrifice, such as cutting heads off chickens, and holy water.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/youth-lost-ugandan-child-soldiers-in-the-lord’s-resistance-army
Falkenburg, Luke. "Youth Lost: Ugandan Child Soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army." Small Wars Journal. N.p., 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 July 2013.

This is an article that touches on all aspects of child soldiers, from abduction, rehabilitation, and reintegration. 

Reintegration

I’ve come across enough information to be able to answer some more questions. I’ll start with; what type of psychological affect would it have, if any, on a person at such an impressionable age? The psychological affects that the children suffer from have all been grouped into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or TPSD as it’s commonly referred to as. This is the same thing you hear US soldiers having after they come back from duty. I’ll talk more about treating this disorder while answering the next question. 

How is a child soldier reintegrated back into society after such a traumatic experience? This is where the people and governments really try to focus their efforts. As of 2006 there were nine centers open to aid in the care of war-affected children. Out of the few lucky children who manage to escape groups like the Lords of Resistance Army (LRA), only an estimated 13-14% find their way to one of these rehabilitation centers. When these lucky few show up they receive medical treatment. Common issues are: malnourishment, infections to the skin and other areas, wounds of varying sizes, HIV/AIDS, and many are maimed physically and psychologically. 15-20% of the children who make it to these centers are over eighteen and because of this fact unfortunately receive less attention even though they may have been abducted at a young age. The average time spent in a center such as these is 2-6 weeks. In one of the centers in Uganda if a child has stayed for such a long time that they are significantly behind in their schooling, they will provide skills training. They teach children bricklaying, carpentry and tailoring, and once they finish the course they provide them with a tool kit so they can earn a living. During the child’s recovery from this traumatic experience, the center actively searches for the child’s parents. Once they are located and the child is of sound body, and psychologically fit, they return home. Unfortunately some times a child’s parents are killed or cannot be found. In these cases, having no place to go and no one to care for them, it is not uncommon for the child to return to the combat group they had escaped from.

I had made a short survey to see what people might do, when having to make some of these hard choses that these children have to make. I’ve posted the questions and the percentage of yes or no answers. If you would like you may take the survey as well at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TQXC28Y

If multiple people came into your house and abducted you, held you at gunpoint and told you too murder someone, would you?     Yes 20%   No 80%

If you were under constant threat of being abducted, under which you would be forced to commit horrible crimes, and the only way to insure your safety would be to walk one hour through the dessert in the middle of the night, would you?     Yes 100%   No 0%

If you were pregnant with a child from one of your abductors, and you had the chance to escape, but had nowhere to go, would you stay with your abductors so you would be able to care for your child?    Yes 46%   No 54%

You had successfully escaped your abductors and had come to realize your parents and friends no longer want anything to do with you because of the horrible crimes you were forced to commit while being held captive, would you return to your abductors for food and shelter?   Yes 13%   No 87%

The "recruitment" of children

I have read countless articles and watched a few documentaries on this subject so far. I have come up with some answers to some of the questions, and naturally have got more questions then I did when I first started. Lest answer some first.

How is a child recruited? This is a loaded question. Most of the information I found was based around Uganda and the Lords of Resistance Army also known as the LRA. The LRA is the major player in the terrorist acts plaguing northern Uganda. When a child in “recruited” by the LRA it means they’re abducted from their homes. Often when a child is first stolen they are forced to kill another abducted child, a parent, a sibling, or just a random stranger as an act of hazing into the group. I read a story about two brothers who were forced to beat they two younger brothers to death with sticks, because the LRA soldiers said having their brothers in the army would make them weak. Also the children are beating as part of the hazing. They are told this is done to straighten them for battle, and they’re not aloud to cry. For if they do they will me killed. One child cried during his beating, so the LRA soldiers forced him lay face down in the road and they beat him over the back of the head with logs until he was dead.

Is there a way for them to leave the fight? The answer is a resounding no. There is no leaving the Lords of Resistance Army. Some children who are daring enough to make an escape attempt make it out. But if you are caught trying to escape the consequences are dire. Some escapees are put to death; often the newly abducted children are forced to do this. Others are brutally maimed to serve as a constant reminder to the new “recruits” of their fate if they try to escape.  

I’ve got more questions on top of the others I came up with earlier. Where did the Lords of Resistance Army come from? What are people doing about them? Hopefully I can answer questions fast than I can come up with them. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgHQS9aUFTw&wide=1

Soldier Child. Dir. Neil Abramson. Perf. Danny Glover. 1998. DVD.

A documentary centered around the rehabilitation centers in Northern Uganda.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361175/

Moscardino, Ughetta, Sara Scrimin, Francesca Cadei, and Gianmarco Altoè. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 July 2013.

This is an article that compares abducted ex-child soldiers and children how had never been abducted.