The Dilemma of Children in Leadership and Crisis
The Dilemma of Children in Leadership and Crisis
In the world today, the most assaulted victims of conflicts are children. In the entire world, there is a clear indication that most natural and man-made disasters are greatly affecting children everywhere. Can you imagine children as well babies are amputated in most African wars like Sierra Leone where one of the high rates of mutilation has ever takes place. Some years ago there was a report of an earthquake in central Africa where majority of the victims were children. Through these atrocities, children are expected to die, and mostly some are separated from their parents. Children can be defenseless when their parents are not around, some time they become unaccompanied.
In a clear human perspective, there is a saying that “Children are the future leaders of tomorrow”. I believe there is no strong fact about this saying because if the children are polluted at this stage with the negative effect of wars and partly natural disaster, definitely we don’t expect any good leadership from our children in the future. That is why in the African continent today it is difficult to find young people in most ministerial or legislative positions. That is also the reason you will find lot of African leaders taken 20 to 30 years in power, failing to know that power is not meant for one individual but that it should be rotational.
In the past years of terror in Sierra Leone, there was a clear testimony that children were the major victims of all atrocities. When you think of mutilation, sexual abuses, killing, forcing them on drugs and also using them as killers, children have been greatly misused. With the above, I believe we will now have a clue that children are really open to lots of chaotic crises like war and natural disasters.
Let us have a look at some of these crises that affect children from becoming our future leaders.
TERRIFIED: In most war affected countries in the world like Congo, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Burma, Liberia and Sierra Leone, children have been used to fight on their behalf. If I can give you a sight testimony, I will like to take Sierra Leone as a case study.
In the past civil and terror war in Sierra Leone, children were fighting for both the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and the Pro-government local militia, the Kamajors. It was difficult to know among the two groups which one had the large number of children because in the east and south of Sierra Leone, children were always initiated to become kamajors as well as rebels. When ever towns or villages were attacked, children were taken to train as fighters. Often after the RUF abducted the surviving children, many of whom have seen their parents been slaughtered were then taking to a special training camp where they were injected with different types of drugs. Those children who escaped often joined the Kamajors in order to retaliate against the rebels. In the past conflict in Burma about 50 years ago; this conflict was between the government and rebel ethnic minorities. During this conflict, there was a 15 year-old Zaw Tun who fought in the Burmese army. These are instances that child abuse is mostly committed in war affected countries.
If we can also take a case study of Burundi, we will realize that all the atrocities committed against children are the same with other war affected countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia. Let us take a case of about two brothers who fled from Burundi to Tanzania. Isidor the elder one was 8 years while Melchior was 6 years. These two children’s parents were killed in front of them and unfortunately Isidor the elder brother had one leg. According to one UNICEF report, Isidor refused to speak to anyone who attempted to talk to him. I believe the reason was because they were traumatized. Can you imagine kids watching the death of their parents, which might lead to an acute trauma.
I will again emphasize here that, such stories of children in crisis are common in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia to name a few. It is also pathetic to know that all the atrocities are alike.
Irrespective of countries affected by war, there are also countries that are not at war but yet still you find children in crises, which have humanitarian problems, and who suffer from stress. So children are open to all out crisis no matter the condition or situation of the country.
ORPHANS: The Rwanda genocide which left an estimated 400,000 orphans. Odetta is one of them. She was 12 years old at the time and saw her parents and sister butchered in front of her. She herself was kidnapped and was attacked with a machete. Deeply traumatized, today she is cared for in an orphanage run by the sister of Calcutta.
Even though there is a blow of poverty in Rwanda, there are still families who are ready to foster children who were orphaned in