When Liberian Child Soldiers Grow Up

A generation of children, many of them young girls, fought in Liberia’s civil wars. They’re now grown up and trapped between their past and creating a future for themselves:

“After handing over her AK-47 and her RPG launcher during a disarmament drive, Mary returned to what she had known before the war: life on the streets, drugs, and prostitution.

“When Schaack, a soft-spoken Liberian social worker with the evangelical humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse, approached her in late 2003, just months after the ceasefire, Mary told her: ‘Move from here that shit. The whole day you passing around and lying to people.’ But after a while, Schaack managed to persuade Mary and eight other girls to live for nine months at a Christian mission where they received counseling as well as courses in pastry making and tie dying.”

Source: Newsweek
Published: Jul 31, 2013
Length: 16 minutes (4,181 words)
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