Saturday, March 03, 2007

Madeleine Touches the Hearts of Many...


Just days ago, a former child soldier spoke before hundreds of people at a United Nations conference. She gave a very touching story of her life as a child soldier and a very moved audience gave her a standing ovation.

Madeleine is a 15-year old girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was one of six presenters at the ‘Girls Speak Out’ forum hosted by the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), as part of the 51st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

She spoke of being forced to join the militia and the girl soldiers being used as sex slaves. Most return from combat with “fatherless” babies, and are stigmatized by the community and outcast.

My country has its own share of problems on child soldiers being recruited by rebel armies to fight against the government. And it really makes me wonder how people can be so selfish and heartless as to let innocent children like Madeleine go through a kind of life that even adults have a hard time dealing with.

I appreciate that the United Nations has taken steps to save Madeleine and many children like her. The UN's visibility will certainly do a lot in making many people aware of the problem and urging governments to take action against forcible recruitment of child soldiers.

Madeleine is lucky she was saved and can now hopefully start to live a normal life and have a chance for a good future. There are still many like her who need to be saved...

2 comments:

Matthew May said...

Great post Lylin thank you...and thanks for the link, I love stories like this.

Lylin Aguas said...

You're welcome, Matt. Stories like this always touch me.