For nearly five decades, Colombians have endured violent conflict between the government, left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries. As of 2012, more than 14,000 children were actively involved in this conflict, most of them recruited by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) leftist guerrilla groups. The Colombian government and several non-profit organizations have created rehabilitation programs to help former child combatants recover from their traumatic experiences.
With the beginning of peace negotiations earlier this year, Colombia has seen a 40% increase in the number of desertions and demobilizations. This increase has put additional pressure on the country to provide former child soldiers with recovery options. In order to recover and be reintegrated into society, these children require access to a range of services that include: psychosocial support, sexual and reproductive healthcare, family reunification or foster care, housing, education, vocational training and employment.
Rehabilitation programs help children to emotionally process the trauma they have experienced and teaches them empowerment skills that will help them rebuild their lives. One government run rehabilitation program has children spend several months living on a farm where they work with animals, cultivate plants, learn socialization skills and recuperate in a non-threatening environment.
After years as a child soldier, one 15 year-old boy explains “you feel so frustrated and ashamed when you are…struggling to learn the simple things that little kids learn easily in a few months. Everything goes so slowly, because you have never learned how to study.”
Most children join guerrilla groups out of necessity. Military groups coerce children into joining through threats or by offering money, food and adventure. Other children become soldiers because they have nowhere else to go due to problems at home and a lack of employment. Once recruited, these children work as messengers, guides, informants, watchmen, cooks and fighters. They are deprived of access to education and instead exposed to violence and life-threatening situations.
Acording to Carolina Maya, a psychologist at the rehabilitation center, “they were led to take up these weapons and uniforms not because they wanted to, but because there was no other option…These kids are neither victims nor murderers. People are not good or bad. This is just something that happens to them.”
Approximately 28% of these child soldiers in Colombia are girls. These girls frequently endure years of sexual assault and enslavement, resulting in high rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; yet when these assaults result in a pregnancy, girls are forced to terminate the pregnancy.
Former child soldier Yineth Trujillo was recruited at the age of 12 and served with Farc for three years before demobilizing and going through rehabilitation. Having performed abortions on other girls, she explained “the women [recruits] think that if they get pregnant, then they’re lucky and they will be free. They are mistaken. It doesn’t matter how long a women has been pregnant. It could be two or eight months. Either way, she will get an abortion.”
Creative Commons Love: Tim Snell on Flickr.com
Written by Amanda Lubit