Support Traumatized Child Soldiers in Liberia!

                                                                      Children don't belong here

It has not been the easiest months for the project. There has been riots in three ghettos we are working in and one of our young men was killed last week. But we won't give up, and keep our hopes hight that one day former child soldiers won't be discriminated and be a source of the conflict in the communities. One day we will live together in peace, and these days would be forgotten as a bad dream.

Currently we have almost a hundren kids under our programm and they are learning new skills to be able to get normal jobs. They are fast learners! During the last two months we had 32 happy graduates - all got a job with our support.

BBC World is coming to see our Botanical Reintagration village next month, it is very exciting for us all. We hope they can help us to spread the word about the success of our project and it could be a great example and inspiration for other places.

Grant application for Forum Syd is still under review. Hopefully it will be succesfull.

What does IDEFOCS do?

Initiative for the Development of Former Child Soldiers (IDEFOCS) is a grass-root civil society organization dedicated to the preven­tion of the use of children in war and the re-recruitment of former child soldiers (FCS) in conflicts around Africa. Through the means of rehabilitation and trauma counseling, together with a focus on services that provide employment opportunities, IDEFOCS aims to reintegrate former child soldiers into the society and the labor market. As an example, we have set up the FCS Botanical Reintegration Village, an agriculture program that has been designed for counseling, training and empowerment of former child soldiers.

Links:

• ICEFOCS, Liberia - reintegrating former child soldiers