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A Visit to Liberia by campaign manager, Jennie Meadows Around 15,000 child soldiers fought during Liberia's seven-year civil war. Once peace came, SCF started a special programme to help these former child soldiers find their families and reintegrate back into civilian life. SCF runs a fast-track skills programme at special centres to help the young people earn a living and catch up on all the education they have missed. So far hundreds have benefited. Save the Children from Violence campaign manager, Jennie Meadows, was in Liberia recently seeing firsthand how SCF staff are helping the young people. She said, "It's frighteningly easy to turn a child into a killing machine, but it's a massive task to turn that soldier back into a child. It's heart breaking to think that becoming a soldier was the best option for many of these children. Those we can, we reunite with their families. But many are orphans, unable to support themselves in peacetime. If they were left they could easily be tempted back into fighting. 'The support and care they get in the centres help them come to terms with the past, and build for the future." During Jennies visit she met Matthew, 12. She said, "Matthew was bubbling with life despite having lost his parents. SCF is trying very hard to trace a member of his family It is deeply disturbing when you meet such young children who have been on the frontline. They have the knowingness of a hardened adult combined with a childlike innocence." "Matthew took me to his room and by his bed he had pinned up a picture torn from an old Newsweek magazine." "It was of a mother cradling a child. 'I like her,' he told me, referring to the mother. Matthew longed for stability and support. Despite all he had gone through for most of his short life, he still had a dream of normality." |
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