Child Protection

Essay by howyoudoinHigh School, 11th gradeB+, May 2004

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

"I was in the front lines the whole time I was with the (opposition force). I used to be assigned to plant mines in areas the enemy passed through. They used us for reconnaissance and other things like that because if you're a child the enemy doesn't notice you much; nor do the villagers."

- Former child soldier from Burma/Myanmar

Can you imagine if you had to enter the military when you were as young as eight years old, or you were forced to work on the street when you were only twelve years old, or what if someone came and told you that you were going on a field trip one day and instead they took you to a factory to work and you never got to go back to your family. Well for millions of children in third world countries they do not have to imagine because this is how there lives are lived.

They do not get to have a say in how their lives are lived or whether are not they would like to go to school. Most children dream of going to school and getting a good education so that they can get a good job to support their family so they do not have to live in poverty, but for most children it is only a dream.

"Over the past decade alone, almost two million children have been killed in armed conflict, more than four million disabled and over one million orphaned. More than ten million children have been psychologically scarred by the trauma of abduction, detention, sexual assault and the brutal murder of family members." Statistics like this should be making our government do something and they are doing some things but they need to do much more. They need to somehow make...