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By Root 834 0

to work, to do what he was told. He was the object of a lot of outside forces: the mines, the bosses, the fighting, the refugee agencies. But it was in the mines that he got some satisfaction, it seemed. Working in the mines he had earned a salary, had formed his own bonds of friendship, had survived dangers, perhaps numbed to them. In the camp, he made no plans, formulated no specific ideas, seemed barely aware of his surroundings. His emotional distance protected him, perhaps, from terrible thoughts of the things he has seen, but it also kept him from taking a more active role in his future. He could not have his hopes disappointed, because he did not seem to have any.

Looking back now, I find his situation quite troubling. He survived as if on autopilot, easily submitting himself to exploitation by the mining concerns who knew that they would not have difficulties controlling him. The isolation of this adolescent boy is dangerous. His work in the mines, the sheer number of child laborers in the Congo, and the large number of girls engaged in the sex trade shed some light on the assertion made in a Women’s Commission report that “adolescents’ strengths and potential as contributors to their societies go largely unrecognized and unsupported…while those who seek to do them harm…recognize and utilize their capabilities very well.”

This report, Untapped Potential, examined the myriad ways adolescents can and do contribute to the healing and recovery of societies torn apart by armed conflict. It also looked at how few programs supported their potential and how sometimes the design of aid focuses solely on very young children and adults. These sorts of programs alienate adolescents and push them further toward the recruiters, the thugs, and the pimps.

Without systems in place to protect and engage children like Lepaix, vulnerable children and orphans, there is no shortage of unscrupulous adults who are ready to exploit them. Not all children are capable of resisting or escaping to find other choices.

I cannot say I would have the strength or the will of Keto or Patience or any of the kids I met who get up every day and face their confines and dangers with courage and a degree of optimism, who cope with their grief and help others to cope. I can see myself wanting only to be rescued, waiting and knowing that my waiting is hopeless or allowing myself to be used by others because it made things easier. Growing up Jewish, there were, inevitably, times I couldn’t help but imagine how I would have fared in a concentration camp. I wondered how I would have held up to the mental and physical strains of that assaulted life.

Until I met these kids in Africa, scrawny and certainly not in the best of health, I thought I could never have survived such situations alive, let alone with any of my current values intact. But listening to them, I feel I might have learned something. Under strain and stress, one doesn’t necessarily have to vanish, to die mentally or physically. As George Orwell wrote, “…many of the qualities we admire in human beings can only function in opposition to some kind of disaster, pain or difficulty.” Many of the children I met illustrated this perfectly. I found much in them to admire, much that had been forged by disaster, pain, and a great deal of difficulty.

It is a commitment to themselves, to their families and communities (sometimes despite the abuse inflicted on them by the same), and to the future that brought out the best in the young people I met. Young people are quite capable of making commitments to their communities, their moral sense, or their beliefs and acting on those commitments when they are able. If adults can recognize and encourage this, adolescents, even in the most difficult circumstances, can be valuable forces for good in their communities. Ignored, these same capacities in children can be harnessed by other adults as powerful destructive forces.

FIVE

“The Things I’ve Done”

Children as Soldiers

The former child soldier sitting across the table from me had little