The document discusses the issue of child soldiers in Sierra Leone during its civil war from 1991-2002. It provides background on how children were conscripted by rebel groups like the Revolutionary United Front and used as soldiers. The photos show children deprived of their childhood, hardened by war, and both captive and finding survival and hope through international aid organizations working to rescue and rehabilitate former child soldiers. The works cited section lists several reliable sources that provide further details on the experiences of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and efforts to help them.

1. Children Soldiers
By: Nathan Ballew
10A World Literature/ Composition
Fourth Period

2. 1991- 2002
This image is used under a CC license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwallace/904213442/sizes/o/in/photostream/

3. Revolutionary United
Front

4. Orphaned
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandgyrl/1753762674/sizes/o/in/photostream/

5. “This is one of the
consequences of the civil war.
People stop trusting each
other, and every stranger
becomes an enemy.”
This image is used under a CC license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/julienlagarde/4299851569/sizes/l/in/photostream/

6. Deprived
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jairomag/2328270371/sizes/o/in/photostream/

7. Hardened
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jairomag/2329090822/sizes/o/in/photostream/

8. This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shavar/30387959/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Captive

9. This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hdptcar/949798984/
Machines

10. Survival
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyafrica/4626521368/sizes/l/in/photostream /

11. Rescued
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/4274519628/sizes/o/in/photostream/

12. This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3312369630/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Hope

13. Relief
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kajisagook/3911875645/sizes/l/in/photostream/

14. This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/endrevestvik/2372880925/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Healing

15. Insight
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrequency/3633702885/sizes/o/in/photostream/

16. Tribal?
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carsten_tb/3295107706/sizes/l/in/photostream/

17. Poor?
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoriah/3487506218/sizes/o/in/photostream/

18. Normal
This image is used under a CC license from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2970386074/sizes/l/in/photostream/

19. Works Cited
“AK-47: the Sierra Leone child soldier.” BBC news. BBC news, 6 Dec. 2005. Web. 22 Oct.
2010. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4500358.stm>. This article was very
interesting. It is a newspaper article about how modern weapons improve the
efficiency of children soldiers. It also provided specific details about the issue. The
newspaper proved its self reliable.
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone. New York: Sarah Crichton, 2007. Print. We used this
book to provide the basis for our information. It helped use come up with questions
and some answers. It is a first hand account of what happened.
“Child soldiers.” war child. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2010.
<http://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/child-
soldiers?gclid=COKZ0Zr28KQCFc9a7AodEmbm1A>. This resource gives a lot
background information. It is not specifically children soldiers in Sierra Leone, however
it provides information about how the children are treated and used. It provides a lot
of facts. We checked the publishing organization to back up the source. This
organization proved to be a very credible source.
Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone. 2003. Zenger Media. DVD. This DVD was provided by Ms.
Hamilton. It was about the UNs efforts to help children that have been rescued from
life as a child soldier. It provided background information to about the issue. It told us
how they are helping the orphaned children, and how they are trying to find their
family.

20. Jones, Lynne. “The boys of war.” Globe & Mail 3 Mar. 2007: n. pag. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 22 Oct. 2010.
<http://infotrac.galegroup.com/default/cant48040?cause=http%3A%2F%2Fic.galegroup.com%
2Fic%2Fovic%2FNewsDetailsPage%2FNewsDetailsWindow%3FdisplayGroupName%3DNews%2
6prodId%3DOVIC%26action%3De%26windowstate%3Dnormal%26catId%3D%26documentId%3
DGALE%7CA160065469>. This Article was connecting the book “A Long Way Gone” to the real
life scenarios relating to the issue at hand. It was a good summary of the book and touched
bases on our issue greatly. as far as evaluating this article, I trust Gale database. I also know that
this is a legitimate newspaper in Canada. This will help increase my understanding of the book
and will help me connect the book to my research. It also gave me another opinion on the issue
and how it relates to the book.
“Military use of children.” Wikipedia. N.p., 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_use_of_children#Sierra_Leone>. This source provided a
very broad over view of the issue. This gave us a better understanding of where to focus our
research to find specific facts. It also told us specifically about children soldiers in Sierra Leone.
We got this source from Wikipedia there were no flags on the page ,but we still check some of
the information to make sure it was reliable.
Richards, Paul. “Sierra Leone.” Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed.
Dinah L Shelton. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 946-954. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 22 Oct. 2010.
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3434600309&v=2.1&u=&it=r&p=GVRL&sw
=w>. This source provided information about the civil war in Sierra Leone. This was helpful,
because it gave us a good background to why the war is going on. The reasons why they rebels
and military use children as warriors. This source was an article from an encyclopedia. We
checked this source and it proved its self reliable.