Last week, I was given two great privileges in one
day. One, I got to hear Ishmael Beah speak and two, I was allowed to miss
school for the opportunity. Woo Hoo!
Who is Ishmael Beah, you ask?
Let me tell you his story and why I believe it’s
important for you to know what happened to him.
Ishmael Beah is a former child
soldier from Sierra Leone who wrote an autobiography about his life in war and
how he escaped.
Ishmael
Beah was just an ordinary child in the country of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is
located in West Africa, south of Senegal. Ishmael had a regular life with
friends, family, school (he even learned some Shakespeare), and he loved
American hip-hop. Ishmael even said "My life before the war was very
simple but very happy, very peaceful, beautiful, and the people were incredibly
kind and nice. I didn't fear anything, anything, nothing at all".
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| West Africa; Senegal (where I visited last Summer) is North of Sierra Leone |
When
Ishmael was just twelve years old, the civil war was brought to the small town
in which he lived. Both of his parents were killed as well as his only two brothers.
He escaped with a group of boys, forced to survive and hide from the rebels in
the country. When Ishmael and his young friends went to seek help in neighboring
villages, people didn’t want to help them because children were not trusted;
children could be brutal soldiers.
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| A Child Soldier |
Adults no longer saw these young children as innocent little faces, but
monsters hired by the government to kill. Looking for shelter and protection,
Ishmael found and army base. Once there,
he was forced to fight for the government against the rebels in return for food
and safety.
The
army used drugs to brainwash these children so they would follow orders to kill.
The drugs fueled the children’s rage and hatred against the rebels who murdered
their families, and gave them energy to keep fighting. The commanders of the
army became father figures to the children who had lost everything.
Courageous field workers from UNICEF risked their
lives to negotiate with the warlords and request children be freed. Sometimes the
commanders would comply, BUT only to boys, girls were kept for sexual
exploitation, and to help cook and clean.
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| Former Child Soldier studying at a UNICEF Relief Camp |
Ishmael
was freed by UNICEF at fifteen years old. He went through 8 months of rehabilitation,
psychotherapy and schooling. When he was sixteen he was lucky enough to travel
to NY to speak at the UN about child soldiers. There, he met a woman who eventually
became his “new mother” and he ended up fleeing Sierra Leone and moving in with
her.
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| Laura Simms, Beah's Adopted Mother |
I’m telling this story because I think people should
pay more attention to the problem of child soldiers in the world. Hundreds of
thousands of child soldiers exist around the world today and we can help make a
difference. The children of the world are the future leaders and citizens of
tomorrow. Please share this story and support organizations, like Ishmaels, who are helping children in war torn countries. : http://www.beahfound.org/Beah_Foundation/Donate.html )
or
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Ishmael Beah and I
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If you have any questions, ask me in the comments area and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
And, If you would like
a chance to win a signed copy of Ishmael's memoirs, leave a comment about this post and I will randomly choose
one lucky winner by Friday May 18th.
Thanks everyone.
Emmanuel
