relatives to be found.
Paul was vulnerable for recruitment because he was physically developed enough to carry a gun and because he did not have the same rights or protections as an adult (though adults are also forced to join armies). He was recruited because he was a child, not in spite of being a child. When the soldiers told him he would be accused of helping them steal, to whom could he appeal? Adolescents are often mistrusted. Paul sensed his position was weak and the soldiers were in a position of strength, so he made what I see as a survival calculation: stick with the strength, go with the soldiers. Otherwise, become a victim, either of the soldiers or of your own community who will suspect you.
He could be filled up with political propaganda because he respected authority and understood what was expected of him. After escaping the army on his own, failed by adults who could neither protect him from the military nor get him out of it, he found himself in a center waiting for other adults to come to his aid. But I believe Paul is quite capable of helping himself, if his altruistic impulses can be encouraged and he can have access to the resources he needs to get an education. He has not given up on the world or on the adults around him. He wants their help and is waiting for it, against the odds. He wants school and parental guidance, not the adulthood that was forced upon him by soldiering. I respect him not for the choices that were made for him—joining the army, waiting for help in the demobilization center, but for the choices he has made: kindness toward others, hope for the future, a desire to learn.
The lesson I took from Paul was this: In wars, when the world of grown-ups fails them, some kids can create their own conditions for survival, can help others to survive, can show amazing courage and strength, can carry the burdens placed on them for quite a while. They are capable of this and deserve, in fact need, respect and encouragement for these capacities. But it is up to adults, who are far more culpable in the political realities of the world, in creating the environment from which children learn to act, not to allow children to carry these burdens for long. They do not all hold up under the strain like Paul.
This project is the result of research missions in East Africa, Thailand, and the Balkans. It is by no means a complete picture of the impact of war on children: I am no expert and my regional scope is limited. I worked with a translator mostof the time, and in some cases this translator had his or her own agenda. I tried to render the children’s words as faithfully as possible and made every effort to work with translators who had the skill and the ability to render the sense of the children’s words without editing them. This was not always possible, and there were times I might have missed what a child was actually saying or actually meant. I can only ask that the reader trust what I convey, as I had to trust what I heard and saw.
I have changed the names of the children and other people involved in these conversations in the interest of their safety. I have also changed a few details to further mask identities where appropriate, and the order of a few events for narrative clarity, but nothing of substance has been altered in their comments or stories. The conversations I recount are told much as they occurred, though, by necessity, many of the meandering discussions off-topic have been edited out.
Follow-up with the same children over time was possible only in a few cases, and I realize it is nearly impossible to predict how a child will grow up based on a few interactions, conversations, and soccer games.
I am not trying to come up with a general theory of how young people experience and cope with war. Anything that is true for one child in one conflict may not be true for another. Differences in culture, political structure, age, gender, and the social status of the child affect
Paul was vulnerable for recruitment because he was physically developed enough to carry a gun and because he did not have the same rights or protections as an adult (though adults are also forced to join armies). He was recruited because he was a child, not in spite of being a child. When the soldiers told him he would be accused of helping them steal, to whom could he appeal? Adolescents are often mistrusted. Paul sensed his position was weak and the soldiers were in a position of strength, so he made what I see as a survival calculation: stick with the strength, go with the soldiers. Otherwise, become a victim, either of the soldiers or of your own community who will suspect you.
He could be filled up with political propaganda because he respected authority and understood what was expected of him. After escaping the army on his own, failed by adults who could neither protect him from the military nor get him out of it, he found himself in a center waiting for other adults to come to his aid. But I believe Paul is quite capable of helping himself, if his altruistic impulses can be encouraged and he can have access to the resources he needs to get an education. He has not given up on the world or on the adults around him. He wants their help and is waiting for it, against the odds. He wants school and parental guidance, not the adulthood that was forced upon him by soldiering. I respect him not for the choices that were made for him—joining the army, waiting for help in the demobilization center, but for the choices he has made: kindness toward others, hope for the future, a desire to learn.
The lesson I took from Paul was this: In wars, when the world of grown-ups fails them, some kids can create their own conditions for survival, can help others to survive, can show amazing courage and strength, can carry the burdens placed on them for quite a while. They are capable of this and deserve, in fact need, respect and encouragement for these capacities. But it is up to adults, who are far more culpable in the political realities of the world, in creating the environment from which children learn to act, not to allow children to carry these burdens for long. They do not all hold up under the strain like Paul.
This project is the result of research missions in East Africa, Thailand, and the Balkans. It is by no means a complete picture of the impact of war on children: I am no expert and my regional scope is limited. I worked with a translator mostof the time, and in some cases this translator had his or her own agenda. I tried to render the children’s words as faithfully as possible and made every effort to work with translators who had the skill and the ability to render the sense of the children’s words without editing them. This was not always possible, and there were times I might have missed what a child was actually saying or actually meant. I can only ask that the reader trust what I convey, as I had to trust what I heard and saw.
I have changed the names of the children and other people involved in these conversations in the interest of their safety. I have also changed a few details to further mask identities where appropriate, and the order of a few events for narrative clarity, but nothing of substance has been altered in their comments or stories. The conversations I recount are told much as they occurred, though, by necessity, many of the meandering discussions off-topic have been edited out.
Follow-up with the same children over time was possible only in a few cases, and I realize it is nearly impossible to predict how a child will grow up based on a few interactions, conversations, and soccer games.
I am not trying to come up with a general theory of how young people experience and cope with war. Anything that is true for one child in one conflict may not be true for another. Differences in culture, political structure, age, gender, and the social status of the child affect
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