Washington, May 08: The US Department of Labour has announced a USD 13 million fund to help, educate and rehabilitate former child soldiers across the globe, including those in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan "We can't give child soldiers their childhood back, but we can help them to rebuild their lives," Labour secretary Elaine Chao said yesterday at the beginning of a two-day international conference in Washington on "Children in the crossfire: Prevention and rehabilitation of child soldiers."
Chao called upon the participants of the conference to evolve strategies to solve the problems of the children, some of whom were as young as seven or eight years, for being forced to become soldiers, spies, guards, human shields, human minesweepers, servants, decoys, sentries and prostitutes after being drugged.
The strategies include prevention, disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration and rehabilitation at the community level, according to a Labour Department statement.
A conservative estimates put the number of child soldiers in the world at 300,000 in more than 30 conflicts zones, Chao said.
The Labour Department's initiative includes USD seven million to develop comprehensive strategies with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to help former child soldiers in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Colombia. Bureau Report