Female Child Soldiers!

I admit that by now, I thought I had heard most all there was to hear about the evil mankind perpetrates on fellow mankind. But this past week I was blown away by the report that came from PI's own Tom and Claire Chandler traveling in Sri Lanka.

While visiting some relief projects our Ministry Partner is managing among thousands of people displaced by the recent civil war, they discovered one refugee campe that had over 1800 girls all under the age of 18 who had been forced to serve as child soldiers by the Tamil Tiger rebels. Separated from their parents, they are now waiting for the Sri Lankan government to determine what should happen next. Amazingly the authorities have allowed our local partner to host a special Christmas program for the girls and offer them a gift as well as some health-care supplies.

For years, I've been hearing about the way that young African boys are kidnapped and forced to carry a gun for the ruthless militias that roam the jungles of DRC and Uganda. But I had no idea that young girls have also been the targets of such incredible evil. Reading some UN reports on the Web, I've learned that girls are known to be even more compliant and obedient than boys and therefore can be easily manipulated to carry out any order - even to the point of shooting other child soldiers. Even more sickening, is to read that often, besides acting as front line foot soldiers, these girls end up being sex slaves of the older commanders. In some situations now, up to half of the child soldiers forced to serve these guerilla movements are girls.

Thank God that for the moment, the civil conflict is over in Sri Lanka and hopefully there is now an opportunity to offer some rehabilitation to both girls and boys who have been child soldiers. Perhaps starting with this Christmas program, our national partners can begin to bring restoration to the broken lives of these children by sharing with them the love and healing touch of Christ.