Former Child Soldier Shares Her Story at GW

On Thursday night Grace Akallo, a former child soldier and Leora Kahn, a world-renowned humanitarian, were hosted by the GW College Democrats to discuss military use of children. The night started off with a  slide show of images portraying war and children.

The audience went silent, captivated by the children’s eyes, full of toughness, sorrow and fear.  A girl’s voice is heard in the background saying, “I am not afraid to die. But I am afraid to die so young.”

The images featured were from Leora Kahn’s new book: Child Soldiers. It is a compilation of photographs taken of child soldiers in countries such as Burma, Uganda, Sudan, Palestine, and Sierra Leone. Khan explained that children as young as seven years old are being abducted and forced to join militia to be cooks, wives, farmers and soldiers.

Kahn introduced Grace Akallo, a former Ugandan child soldier and author of the book Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children. Akallo was abducted from her school in Uganda at the age of fifteen by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Immediately she was trained, beaten, given an AK-47 and forced to kill, otherwise she would be killed.

Akallo was sent to Sudan to fight the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, killing Sudanese soldiers and civilians as well as being a wife to the soldiers. Kahn stated, “I went through a life that nobody should live. I was lucky, I was fifteen. There were seven year olds crying out for their mothers.” After seven months with the LRA, Akallo escaped and returned home to her community.

Akallo said there is little community support for children who escape from militias. Those that were soldiers are labeled as murderers and blamed for the killing of families.

The girls that were wives often become pregnant and the society doesn’t accept the mother or the baby. Akallo recalls a member of her community referring to her as “Kony’s wife” (Joseph Kony is the head of the LRA). The children are blamed even though they were kidnapped and forced to join the militia.

How can we get involved and make a difference? Both Kahn and Akallo encourage students to write letters to congressmen about the child soldiers or to sponsor a child.

Akallo said that she wouldn’t be educated, or able to share her story today, if it weren’t for her sponsor that donated money. Another way to stop military use of children, she said, is to encourage businesses to discontinue manufacturing small arms. She claims that a reason for the increase in child soldiers is the circulation of small arms, which can be carried and used by children.

Akallo urged students to get involved and make a difference: “We are all people connected by blood. We are all people connected by breath. We need to protect that life… It is our responsibility to rise against this evil.”