I did not want to fight anymore, but if they said to go to the front line, you had to go. We had to walk for days without getting any sleep or food. I was very sad when I had to see my friends die. Within the group, I experienced war, hunger and cold.

- Mercedes, former child soldier in Columbia

Nearly half a million children have been engaged in more than 85 conflicts worldwide. As armed conflict proliferates, an increasing number of children are exposed to the brutalities of war. Boys and girls around the world are recruited to be child soldiers by armed forces and militant groups, both forcibly and voluntarily. Some are tricked into service by manipulative recruiters; others join in order to escape poverty or discrimination. Still others are abducted from school, the streets, or their homes. Aside from participating in combat, many are used for sex and as spies, messengers, porters, or servants.  They are even ordered to plant and clear land mines.  Kids have become the ultimate weapons and targets of 21^st-century war.

PROOF’s Work:

PROOF: Media for Social Justice, alongside partner Amnesty International, created the book Child Soldiers to shed light on the inhumanity of child warfare. Portrayed by photographers and writers from across the globe, the book explores these children’s time as combatants, as well as their demobilization and rehabilitation. The book depicts child soldiers in Columbia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Afghanistan, Uganda, the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Palestine, and Iraq. These children lost their innocence, youth and for many, their lives, to become front-line targets

PROOF’s exhibit “Child Soldiers: Forced to be Cruel” is based on the book “Child Soldiers,” by Leora Kahn. It features 40 photographs taken by talented and devoted photographers, depicting child soldiers from around the world who have been manipulated by war criminals and subjected to unspeakable violence. Their faces depict the reality of a lost childhood. Instead of the frivolity, joy, defiance, or rebellion of childhood, we see a deadly seriousness on the face of a gun-toting teenager. This internationally traveled exhibition has been shown at the Capitoline Museum in Rome, Italy, the Bonn Kunstmusem in Bonn, Germany, and the United Nations in New York City. It will also be traveling to South Africa, Canada, Spain, and Bosnia.

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