Academy Award-winning actor and director Ben Affleck spent some time this past
May visiting with former child soldiers who are part of a Save the Children program in Goma, a town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This region has seen some of the worst fighting
in the country over the last 15 years. The visit was part of a larger trip the actor made to bring attention to the country's humanitarian crisis.Children are the most vulnerable
in any conflict, and the effects of this war on Congolese children are profound. Many children were recruited into the armed militia, or separated from their families when they fled the
fighting. Many girls have been raped and mutilated - a deliberate tactic of the warring groups. Despite the ceasefire agreement signed in January this year, children continue to be recruited,
sexually abused and forced to flee their homes. Over 3 million primary age children (ages 6 to 11) and 6 million adolescents (ages 12 to 17) do not go to school. And, only 25 percent of children
who do go to primary school complete their education. It is estimated there are more than 1.2 million people displaced in Congo -- 500,000 since the beginning of this year. There are
also some 3,000 children separated from their families due to the conflict, whom Save the Children is helping reunite with their families.About 30,000 children have been directly associated
with the armed groups and forces over the whole period of the DRC conflict; around 3,000 to 5,000 children remain in the groups. In the past year, Save the Children has helped more than 1,200
child soldiers leave the armed militia. Many children are injured both physically and mentally, and Save the Children is ensuring these children get support. Save the Children also provides them with
food, shelter, education and livelihood training while the staff trace their families and reintegrate them with their communities ; some children have been forced to travel thousands of miles from
their homes. The two teenagers who met with Ben Affleck are being cared for through a Save the Children program while the organization seeks to trace their families and reunite them. Save the Children, as part of its global Rewrite the Future campaign, is helping to provide quality education in conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, and improve the standards of
schooling. In the DRC, Save the Children is working to help the government rebuild both schools and the finance systems to support education. The organization is training teachers,
providing essential classroom materials like blackboards, books, and chalk, and reaching out to communities to encourage children to go to and stay in school. Save the Children began working
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1994, helping children who had fled the genocide in neighboring Rwanda, and then expanded programs to work with Congolese children. Today, Save the
Children implements programs in education, health and child protection in five of the country's 16 provinces, including Kasai Oriental, North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Kinshasa. Since the
war began in 1996, Save the Children has helped reunite thousands of children with their families and rebuild their lives within their community.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Children watch a boy practise breakdancing in the town of Melnikovo, near the Siberian city of Tomsk, about 3500 km (2175 miles) east of Moscow, June 5, 2008. In the mid-1990s, ...
