Child soldiers is a common notion describing the position where a child or a minor has to wield a weapon and fight in a war. However, it has been accepted that this is not the only meaning of child soldier. The definition given by Unicef based on the Cape Town Principles 1997 is as follows:
"... a 'child soldier' as any child - boy or girl - under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including, but not limited to: cooks, porters, messengers, and anyone accompanying such groups other than family members. It includes girls and boys recruited for forced sexual purposes and/or force marriage..."
There is no exact figure of how many kids are involved with war, but the range is between 250,000 and 350,000, in about 30 conflicts of today altogether. The amount might be small for us as compared to the 6 billion people in the world, but think of it this way, these children are supposed to be our future. Stripping them off their innocence is going to give them a dark future. Some may not live to see the future, others may continue on with the darkness, surviving through the only thing they know: violence, and the rest may only be forgotten.
Think about it... they are the children of our future, the future that we so desire to protect. Let's take steps to create awareness about this issue along with all the other issues. They may not know who we are, and how we helped them, but giving them hope for a better future is reward enough for all of us.
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