By: Cindy Mondragon

Definition
 Child soldiers-”A child soldier is any person under 18 years of age who is
part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any
capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and
anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The
definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced
marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has
carried arms.”
The start
 Children under the age of 18 can be easily manipulated and can be
drawn into violence and they are too young to understand and resist.
 Children are being taken from their parents by rebel groups and
forced to kill them to ensure that the kids won’t have no where to go.
 Boys and girls are set as front line shooters, decoys, spies, and even
sex slaves.
 Most of the conflict affects underdeveloped countries like Africa as
well as develop countries like Europe.
Training
The Now
 Estimated 250,000 children are serving in armed conflict
 hundreds more are members of armed forces who could be sent into combat at any time.
 30 countries practice the use of child soldiers but universal law states
that you have to be 18 to join the military.
 The origins of the “child soldiers” are unknown but it is a fact than the
practice has been ongoing for more than 300 years.
This is a map of were child soldiers are
being used.
 Poem
 CHILDREN AT WAR
 
Little girl, hidden in the bush,
Why aren’t you with your mother today?
Little boy, so far from home,
Who put that gun in your hand?
Child soldiers, what do you understand
Of rebels’ causes and governments,
Broken cease-fires and armaments?
 
You only know you are a slave
For sex, or killing, or running away.
You are here to fight and die
For adults who never tell you why
As they steal your childhood away.
 
Your uniform should be some school’s;
You should sleep safe in a fresh, clean bed,
No horrors to torment or numb you,
As Mother’s song sings in your head.
 
Oh, children! May you find a home,
Where you remember how to play!
May you recall times before it all
Came undone on an evil day
When soldiers carried you away.
 
Dr. Carole R. Fontaine
Why Rebels chose children?
 Lots of boys and girls may be sent into minefields ahead of other troops or
to the front lines of combat.
 Many organizations are working together to establish national and
international measures that would prohibit the use of children and young
people under the age of 18
 The rebels fighting against the government.
What can we do to help?
 One way to stop the spared of
child soldiers is to during the
night have them sleep in a facility
with soldiers protecting it.
 Two educate them have them stay
in school “knowledge is power”
 Find a way to bring the already
child soldiers back to society
have a rehabilitation center close
to every country that has child
soldiers.
 "I would like you to give a message. Please
do your best to tell the world what is
happening to us, the children. So that other
children don't have to pass through this
violence.“ this what one child soldier wants,
lets help him with it.
Live life to the fullest for all those
who cant.
 http://www.un.org/works/goingon/soldier
s/childsoldiersmap.html
 http://www.child-
soldiers.org/childsoldiers/child-soldiers
 http://www.child-soldiers.org/home