Irene Bachas's research paper

As a result of suffering, every child will combat with the despairing and tormenting consequences from the aftermath of war. Many counties including Sierra Leone, Angola, Rwanda and Uganda use child soldiers consisting of children ages 13-18 but many groups also include children aged 12 and under. In these cases, young children are being stripped of their childhood and forced to become soldiers in war. Comanders kidnap children from their own homes, both at night and during the day, and take everything they love away from them including their family, friends, relatives, schools and communities. After they are taken from their homes, these minors have no other choice then to fight in these wars agaist other children their age. Younger children are used in battle because they are better at hiding, can’t fight back, comanders don’t care if they died and most importanlty because they can be brainwashed a lot easier. The comanders also abuse the children weather it was physically, mentally and/or emocionally. This abuse in the long run changes their life tremendously after the war. The former child soldiers have very long various effects from war that require many months of rehabilitation.

Dr. Hernan Reyes believes the worst scars are in the mind which is psychological torture. Former child soldiers face mental instability after being in war. “Children go threw several of months before they could sleep at night without medication. It takes even longer to recall early childhood memories as they grapple with the flashbacks of past war experiences” (Steel). During the process that the children are taken away from their homes they are forced to watch their families killed. This makes it difficult for the children to try to think back to t...

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...etimes they dont wanna talk about the experience because it gets them so emoctional, so they never say anything about it and just keep it to themselves. The last example that proves both the examples above is, “Frequently, these children have difficulty with community relationships after their release. They struggle with guilt and shame and don’t ever see their families again. They are labeled as different or untrustworthy, which, in a vicious cycle, depends their sense of isolation” (Helping Former Children). After realizing what they did to other people the whole time in war, they feel very guilty. Thats why in most cases, also including Ishmael’s, the nurses repetetivly tell the children thats its not their fault. After a while of hearing it some start to believe it becoming a less shamefull and guilty. Even emocional issues could be overcome with rehabilitation.