Eric Malekos

Dominic Nava

Anthony Richardson

c/o Serra High School

451 West 20^th Avenue,

San Mateo, CA 94403

April 27, 2010

Dr. Lynn Ponton

201 Edgewood Avenue

San Francisco, CA, 94117

Dear Dr. Ponton:

Thank you for talking to us about child soldiers. We realize that you are very busy, and took time out to help us understand the ramifications of forcing children to fight in war. We were nervous about talking to you beforehand, but your kind and receptive demeanor made us very comfortable. You helped us understand why child soldiers are used so often, and how Stockholm syndrome often results in children identifying with their abductors.

The most interesting thing we learned about was the youth villages. It was remarkable to learn that in Israel child soldiers are placed in isolated communities where they can be rehabilitated and introduced into society. This sounds like a very good step in teaching children how to act in a stable environment.

Sincerely,

Eric Malekos, Dominic Nava, & Anthony Richardson

Narrative

Narrative: Ishmael Beah – Child Soldier

Prepared by Eric Malekos and Anthony Richardson

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is an autobiographical account of his late childhood and impressment into the army as a child soldier. Ishmael is 12 years old when his village first experiences the violence that has been plaguing Sierra Leone. After a short time on the run with his friends, Ishmael is abducted into the army. Although initially scared and unwilling to kill, Ishmael under the influence of corrupt officers and drugs begin to relish the life as a soldier and the power it affords him. After almost 3 years as a soldier he is released to UNICEF – an international aid agency that helps – among other things - to rehabilitate children exposed to war. While Ishmael is initially very hostile to the UNICEF volunteers, he eventually bonds with a nurse named Esther. She shows interest in him and gives him the opportunity to go to America and tell his story before the United Nations along with kids from other countries. This respite from the violence and chaos of Sierra Leone is short lived, and when he returns after two weeks the town his staying in – Freetown – is invaded and the uncle he is living with – the last of his family – is killed. At this point Ishmael decides to travel back to America. He makes the journey to New Guinea, where he contacts a woman he met in America and is able to secure a plane ride back to New York. At the end of the story he ends up being adopted by the woman – Laura Simms.

Ishmael and his friends travelled from village to village working for food. When work is unavailable, however, they must resort to stealing to survive. “That night we were so hungry that we stole people’s food while they slept. It was the only way to get through the night” (Beah 15). This is a case of injustice promoting injustice – Ishmael and his friends are unable to fulfill the basic need of eating, so they become part of the injustice of stealing. The problem of surviving in war environments is an injustice that no one system can be blamed for, nor is there a real way to combat it. If one were to place blame on a single entity it would be the international community because of its inability to prevent the conflicts that precipitate these situations. While aid organizations usually do come in to provide food and medical supplies for people in these situations, they are unable to do so when fighting is still taking place.

A few weeks after being forced out of his village, Ishmael finds a village under the protection of the army to stay in. Shortly after, however, the main rebel group – the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) – begins sending “messengers” to the village telling the villagers and soldiers that they are going to attack them. The messengers were not the typical kind of messenger and Ishmael describes one of the more ghastly ones: “One of the messengers was a young man. They had carved their initials, RUF, on his body with a hot bayonet and chopped off all his fingers with the exceptions of his thumbs (Beah 21). As a human being the “messenger” has inherent rights, and mutilating his body is a blatant violation of his dignity and an obvious injustice. The government as a system is failing in its ability to protect its citizens, but that raises the question of whether the inability to act is evil. In this case, it is not, and the only “system that can really be called evil is the rebel organization.

After being forced into the army Ishmael is trained to kill and eventually caries out this order – “I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, and I killed a man. Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head” (Beah 75). In a situation such as this one may jump to the conclusion that Ishmael is an “evil” person. This is not the case however as Ishmael is a good person caught up in a terrible situation. So, while it is easy to see the injustice Ishmael is causing – death of another human – on should also recognize the injustice he is suffering – loss of innocence, self-esteem, and the ability to choose his own actions. The main system involved in this injustice is the government and specifically the army. Under the auspice protecting citizens from the rebels, the army commits heinous acts of abduction, torture and murder that are on par with the rebels.

Ishmael now lives in America with a foster mother. This outcome is not typical of child soldiers that have been put into this situation. Most that are fortunate enough to survive the fighting are not able to violence of their home countries. Furthermore emotional and physical issues that result from being forced to kill, heavy use of drugs, sexual assault and other traumatic events stay with these children for their entire lives. That said, international agencies such as UNICEF are working to end the use of child soldiers and rehabilitate former child soldiers. Furthermore some countries are beginning to bring children in and setting up secluded communities where former child soldiers can re-learn how to function in society.

Catholic Social Teaching on Child Soldiers

CST #1- Life and Dignity of the Human Person

Every human life is special, and people are more important than objects. We are all created in the image of God, and as such we should give each other the respect in life that we all deserve. When children are forced to commit violent crimes, they are deprived of the quality of life that we all deserve, a quality of life where one isn't forced into any situation and can make their own decisions. Additionally, when children are forced to fight battles, they are obviously forced as well to take the lives of others. These experiences often scar children for life, and their actions subsequently deprive others of their lives.



CST #2-Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The family is the fundamental unit in society and instrumental in the healthy psychological and emotional human growth. Furthermore, individuals have a responsibility to help their community and participate. Conflict groups take children from families to use in war - destroying the sacred family unit. By removing children from the stable environment of the family, military groups damage the emotional development of children.


CST #3-Rights and Responsibilities

Every human being is entitled to certain individual rights. Catholic tradition shows that these rights need to be protected in order to create safe and flourishing communities.
The essential right every person is entitled to is a right to life; subsequent rights that follow deal with keeping human decency intact. With every child who is forced into combat their rights to life and decency aren’t fulfilled. These children are often forced to perform acts of atrocity, and to even be willing to die for the causes of others.

CST #4- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

To determine the relative well-being and happiness of a society, one should look to the state of the most poor and vulnerable in that society. Logically, in order to spread well-being throughout a community, a society should focus on helping these poor and vulnerable people, because their comfort in a community leads to the community’s improvement. Child soldiers and their families are often the poorest and most vulnerable in a society. Conflict groups recognize this weakness, and exploit it to kidnap thousands of children for combat purposes.

CST #5-The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The availability of respectable work in often leads to an improvement of a particular society. Respectable work refers to jobs where the basic rights of workers are acknowledged and respected. Child soldiers are often recruited from the poorest families in a community. If these families could access respectable work, they could most likely set themselves up in better situations to avoid the influence of conflict groups.

CST #6-Solidarity

Every human being, all of us, is essentially part of one giant family. Throughout our daily life we should strive to help others, our family, in any way we can, ignoring differences that stem from nationality, race, ethnicity, or economic standing. We should take this stance with child soldiers even though they may seem like children who we have no connection with; they are part of our human family, and deserve the same type of help and care that we extend to people that we do know.

CST #7-Care for God’s Creation

Just as we are called to help the poor and vulnerable we are also called to help the animals and environment of our world, as they are God’s creation. In many areas where child soldiers are recruited, families heavily rely on agriculture and their crops to sustain themselves. In order to create chaos and fear, conflict groups often target families’ crops or livestock to steal or harm. These actions are obviously wasteful, and disrespect God’s creation. The chaos and fear that result leads to easy manipulation of children to become soldiers, and only furthers violence and atrocities around the world.




Works Cited
"USCCB - (SDWP) - Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching." United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

Second Post Assignment - CST #1 and #2

Catholic Social Teaching and the Problem of Children Soldiers

Our social justice topic focuses upon the issue of child soldiers. In areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and Asia children are utilized to bolster the fighting power of numerous non governmental conflict groups and even state-run governments in order to gain power and money. In this process children are exposed and forced into to violent, life-altering situations that only create an endless cycle for the problem to continue to occur.

Catholic Social Teaching #1- Life and Dignity of the Human Person

The key points of the first Catholic Social Teaching are that every human life is special, and that people are more important than objects. We are all created in the the image of God, and as such we should give each other that respect in life that we all deserve. This Catholic Social Teaching relates to our social justice topic, because when children are forced to commit violent crimes, they are deprived of the quality of life that we all deserve, a quality of life where one isn't forced into any situation and can make their own decisions. Additionally, our topic relates to Catholic Social Teaching #1 because when children are forced to fight battles, they are obviously forced as well to take the lives of others. These experiences often scar children for life, and their actions subsequently deprive others of their lives.

-written by Dom Nava

Catholic Social Teaching #2 - Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The keys points of the second Catholic Social Teaching is that the family is the fundamental unit in society and instrumental in the healthy psychological and emotional human growth. Furthermore individuals have a responsibility to help their community and participate. This CST relates to out topic because military organizations take children from families to use in war - destroying the "sacred" (McKenna 42) family unit. By removing children from the stable environment of the family, military groups damage the emotional development of children.

- written by Eric Malekos

"Fighting Styles That Will Probably Get Your Ass Kicked | Gunaxin Humor." Gunaxin Humor | Stuff for Guys | Sports, Girls, Humor, Media, Gadgets and Beer. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .

"COALITION Films" - Projects: In Development." COALITION Films" - Official Website: Transform Audience Now. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .

Introduction

Our Social Justice project is on the use of children in war. Military and conflict groups throughout the world recruit and force children to serve in war. The practice is especially prevalent in Africa as well as the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Children that are forced into war usually suffer from psychological and physical trauma related to their traumatic experience.

I am Anthony Richardson I am currently attending Junipero Serra High school San Mateo, CA.I am a senior student. For my theology class I and my group are interested in child warfare because we feel that this is an important topic that is happening in the world today. We believe that this is wrong and there needs to be a stop to it. The reason this intrest me is because I feel bad for the kids that are being taken from there homes and froced to fight and risk there lifes for something that doesnt really matter to them.Kids shouldn’t be forced to kill.

My name is Dominic Nava, a senior student at Junipero Serra High School. For my social justice project in theology class my group and I chose to address the issue of the use of children in war. We chose this topic because even as an important issue in our world, it is often ignored by the western world. The use of children in war is often ignored because it does not directly impact the western world, but in areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and even in Asia the use of children allows for violence to occur that impacts the lives of many hundreds of thousands of children, their families, and others. In order to address this issue, more attention and funds need to be allocated towards preventing the use of children on the battlefield, or else the casualties and destruction it causes will likely escalate to uncontrollable levels.

My name is Eric Malekos. For my Social Justice I am addressing the problem of the use of children in warfare. I chose this topic because it is something not normally considered or addressed in the media, and I would like to bring attention to it. Children used in warfare suffer irreparable psychological harm, and oftentimes have trouble assimilating back into society. This is an international problem that should be ended.