Taken from menoressoldados.org.
Experts have found that former child soldiers exposed to brutal episodes of violence, war or face a range of psychological and emotional problems are often left untreated when they leave military service.
Approximately 250,000 children worldwide are forced to fight as soldiers in conflicts, and undergo a series of traumas, including physical abuse and sexual violence, torture and mass murder.
Two studies, to be published next month in the Journal Child Development (Child Development) , explore how these children adapt to life in peacetime and discover how many of them suffer from serious emotional and behavioral problems , which are rarely treated.
study focuses on Uganda, where an estimated 25,000 children and adolescents have been forcibly recruited for the Lord's Resistance Army, an armed group which started a bloody war against the government of Uganda in 1987.
found that former child soldier who had fought with the group showed a number of problems even long after leaving the battlefield, and that there was little local infrastructure to manage this issue.
behavior problems
The study conducted by researchers at the University of Hamburg, about half of the 330 children had seen someone killed and more than a quarter had been violated during his time as soldiers .
The researchers found that after leaving the military, one third of children showed signs of post-traumatic stress, more than a third were depressed and more than half had behavior problems.
The figures indicate an urgent need for rehabilitation in the country, researchers say, noting that there is only one psychiatrist in Uganda for every 1.3 million people.
The study also reveals that the vast majority of former child soldiers continue to face violence after the return to their homes, with 90% of the observers report abuses including beatings, burns, rape, once they have left the military.
Nivi Narang, director of charity campaigns UK War Child, which helps 1,400 former child soldiers in Uganda, explained that funding is one of the biggest problems for many rehabilitation programs.
"There simply is not enough funding," he says. "The kind of funding that is available is not adequate. We try to re-educate, it is really important. "
Rejected by the community
separate study, conducted in Sierra Leone, found that the ability of children to recover from the horrors in areas of conflict depends largely on the treatment received after returning home.
Researchers at Harvard University concluded that children who were returned to communities where they were accepted and not isolated from their peers be managed better than those who were forced to leave school.
But the study also states that children who went through extremely traumatic episodes lasting imbalance exhibited psychological symptoms requiring more intensive assistance for rehabilitation.
"The witness of the general war violence, although quite common, it has a strong effect on psychological adjustment and social development of children in the long term, "stated Theresa Betancourt, the expert in child health and human rights at Harvard, author of the study.
"In contrast, the effects of experience rape and injure or kill others are more durable," he explains.
Both studies found that post-conflict support to former child soldier was severely deficient in the countries in which it was necessary, and warn of "severe consequences for society", since a generation of children damaged by war reach adulthood with very limited support.
is a concern has been recognized long ago by the charities working in this field.
"There is plenty to do in terms of cultural attitudes," says Narang. "If children manage to get out and have no means to get a job to return to education, and are rejected by their families, will return to the army.
"It's the only family they know. Is a potential trigger of conflict. "
studies are the first scientific research that focuses on the psychological impact of conflict on child soldiers, although they have been used in at least 86 countries worldwide. Andrew Wander
Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/07/201071213841603942.html
