Ben Affleck meets former child soldiers in Save the Children programme in eastern Congo
Academy Award-winning actor and director Ben Affleck spent a day in May visiting former child soldiers, who are part of a Save the Children programme in Goma, a town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Monday 30 June 2008
This region has seen some of the worst fighting in the country over the last 15 years. The visit was part of a larger trip the Academy Award-winning actor and director made to bring attention to the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Children are the most vulnerable in any conflict, and the effects of this war on Congolese children are profound. Many children were recruited into the armed militia, or separated from their families when they fled the fighting. Many girls have been raped and mutilated — a deliberate tactic of the warring groups. Despite the ceasefire agreement signed in January this year, children continue to be recruited, sexually abused and forced to flee their homes.
Over three million primary age children (ages 6 to 11) and six million adolescents (ages 12 to 17) do not go to school. And only 25% of children who do go to primary school complete their education.
It is estimated there are more than 1.2 million people displaced in Congo -- 500,000 since the beginning of this year. There are also some 3,000 children separated from their families due to the conflict, whom Save the Children is helping reunite with their families.
An estimated 30,000 children have been directly associated with the armed groups and forces over the whole period of the DRC conflict; around 3-5,000 children remain in the groups. In the past year, Save the Children has helped more than 1,200 child soldiers leave the armed militia. Many children are injured both physically and mentally and Save the Children’s team ensure the children get support.
Save the Children also provides them with food, shelter, education and livelihood training whilst the staff trace their families and re-intergrate them with their communities. Sometimes children have been forced to travel thousands of miles from their homes. The two teenagers who met with Ben Affleck are being cared for by a Save the Children programme while the organisation seeks to trace their families and reunite them.
Save the Children, as part of its global Rewrite the Future campaign, is helping to provide quality education in conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, and improve the standards of schooling. In the DRC, Save the Children is working to help the government rebuild both schools and the finance systems to support education. The organisation is training teachers, providing essential classroom materials like blackboards, books, and chalk, and reaching out to communities to encourage children to go to and stay in school.
Save the Children began working in the DRC in 1994, helping children who had fled the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, and then expanded programmes to work with Congolese children. Today, Save the Children implements programmes in education, health and child protection in five of the country’s 16 provinces, including Kasai Oriental, North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Kinshasa. Since the war began in 1996, Save the Children has helped reunite thousands of children with their families and rebuild their lives within their community.
Photo: Max Culhane
