How Many More Times Do We Have

I Lay In My Bed Night After Night Staring At The Ceiling And Thinking, Why Have I Survived The War? Why Was I The Last Person In My Immediate Family To Be Alive? I Didn’t Know.

How Many More Times Do We Have To Come To Terms With Death Before We Find Safety?

Whenever I Speak At The United Nations, Unicef Or Elsewhere To Raise Awareness Of The Continual And Rampant Recruitment Of Children In Wars Around The World, I Come To Realize That I Still Do Not Fully Understand How I Could Have Possibly Survived The Civil War In My Country, Sierra Leone.

I Joined The Army To Avenge The Deaths Of My Family And To Survive, But I've Come To Learn That If I Am Going To Take Revenge, In That Process I Will Kill Another Person Whose Family Will Want Revenge; Then Revenge And Revenge And Revenge Will Never Come To An End.

For Many Observers, A Child Who Has Known Nothing But War, A Child For Whom The Kalashnikov Is The Only Way To Make A Living And For Whom The Bush Is The Most Welcoming Community, Is A Child Lost Forever For Peace And Development. I Contest This View. For The Sake Of These Children, It Is Essential To Prove That Another Life Is Possible.