The worth of a child...
How do you restore the value of human life?
In a society where thousands of children and youth are recruited and forced into armed groups, where thousands more are used by drug traffickers, urban militias, and prostitution rings, and where hundreds upon hundreds more are hunted down and assassinated by “social cleansing” groups, how do you convince young people that their lives are actually worth something? How do you convince them they do not need to pick up a gun, that they do not need to escape into the bliss of drugs or alcohol, or that school will actually give them a future?
After living in Bogota for over three months, there are many days when I am overwhelmed by the hopelessness of it all. I struggle to understand how so many young people in such desperate situations find the strength to get out every day to study, work, and even have fun once in a while. There is incredible strength in the young people here and there are not enough people who appreciate it. In some of these neighbourhoods, life is absolute hell. I can understand why kids join gangs, why guns are attractive, and why the highs of drugs and alcohol are an appealing escape. What continues to impress me are the kids who resist these avenues and are convinced that things can change for the better. They have more optimism than I do, and I don't have to live there.
I hope they are right.
I listen to stories of friends who were shot simply for being out after the paramilitary “curfew”. They were not reprimanded or sent home to their parents with a warning. They were executed. I listen to stories of how teenagers had night classes or evening jobs and had to sneak home at night, terrified that they would be found by “limpiezas” (“social cleansing” groups) and shot. These kids are not criminals. For most of them, their only crime is that they are young and could potentially be involved in a gang, prostitution, drugs, or an enemy armed group. For some of them, their worst crime is that they smoke marijuana on street corners. For this they could be killed. And no one will go to jail for their murders.
How can we be surprised that a country in which youth are treated like this also has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world? When you have no social power and no chance at an education or a job, and someone offers you a gun and the chance to be someone important, what makes you refuse? When violence is the only currency that you’ve ever known, it makes sense to join an armed group to get what you want, to get revenge, to escape from your family, or to run from whatever else is haunting you. Unfortunately, these kids soon learn that their lives are not better once they pick up the gun. But once you are in it, how do you leave?
The child soldiers are not the only youth suffering from this war. In fact, the child soldiers are the minority. There are also the displaced children, the orphans, the mine victims, the girls and boys forced into prostitution, the drug “mules”, the gang members co-opted by other armed groups, and the regular kids just trying to make it in neighbourhoods that have been taken over by armed thugs. Most of these kids do not want to join any kind of armed group. They don't want a gun and they wish they were not scared all of the time. They wish they could go out with their friends at night. They want to study and grow up to get a job and have a family. Right now they are just normal kids. But how many more years of living in terror and violence can they take? How long will it take before something dies inside, before hopelessness sets in?
How do you convince a child in this type of place that he or she is still worth something?
In a society where thousands of children and youth are recruited and forced into armed groups, where thousands more are used by drug traffickers, urban militias, and prostitution rings, and where hundreds upon hundreds more are hunted down and assassinated by “social cleansing” groups, how do you convince young people that their lives are actually worth something? How do you convince them they do not need to pick up a gun, that they do not need to escape into the bliss of drugs or alcohol, or that school will actually give them a future?
After living in Bogota for over three months, there are many days when I am overwhelmed by the hopelessness of it all. I struggle to understand how so many young people in such desperate situations find the strength to get out every day to study, work, and even have fun once in a while. There is incredible strength in the young people here and there are not enough people who appreciate it. In some of these neighbourhoods, life is absolute hell. I can understand why kids join gangs, why guns are attractive, and why the highs of drugs and alcohol are an appealing escape. What continues to impress me are the kids who resist these avenues and are convinced that things can change for the better. They have more optimism than I do, and I don't have to live there.
I hope they are right.
I listen to stories of friends who were shot simply for being out after the paramilitary “curfew”. They were not reprimanded or sent home to their parents with a warning. They were executed. I listen to stories of how teenagers had night classes or evening jobs and had to sneak home at night, terrified that they would be found by “limpiezas” (“social cleansing” groups) and shot. These kids are not criminals. For most of them, their only crime is that they are young and could potentially be involved in a gang, prostitution, drugs, or an enemy armed group. For some of them, their worst crime is that they smoke marijuana on street corners. For this they could be killed. And no one will go to jail for their murders.
How can we be surprised that a country in which youth are treated like this also has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world? When you have no social power and no chance at an education or a job, and someone offers you a gun and the chance to be someone important, what makes you refuse? When violence is the only currency that you’ve ever known, it makes sense to join an armed group to get what you want, to get revenge, to escape from your family, or to run from whatever else is haunting you. Unfortunately, these kids soon learn that their lives are not better once they pick up the gun. But once you are in it, how do you leave?
The child soldiers are not the only youth suffering from this war. In fact, the child soldiers are the minority. There are also the displaced children, the orphans, the mine victims, the girls and boys forced into prostitution, the drug “mules”, the gang members co-opted by other armed groups, and the regular kids just trying to make it in neighbourhoods that have been taken over by armed thugs. Most of these kids do not want to join any kind of armed group. They don't want a gun and they wish they were not scared all of the time. They wish they could go out with their friends at night. They want to study and grow up to get a job and have a family. Right now they are just normal kids. But how many more years of living in terror and violence can they take? How long will it take before something dies inside, before hopelessness sets in?
How do you convince a child in this type of place that he or she is still worth something?
posted by Rachel at 9:56 AM
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