Worldwide Child Soldiers

"Over the past ten to fifteen years", the topics child slavery and child soldiers have caught the attention of the outside world. Child soldiers have come about by abductions. In the event of abductions, once they are taken captive, they become child soldiers because the leaders convince the children, coerce them into being a killer, promise them "glory and excitement". Another reason is that these children have been exposed to poverty stricken areas and unsafe conditions at home. Child abductions and forceful tactics of entering children into the war time situations happen most in Africa. Over half of child soldiers are in Africa. Children as young as eight and ten, once abducted are forced to become child soldiers.
Pictures of kids holding guns and killing others are sprawled all over the television for billions to see. But what isn't usually portrayed that should be are the young girls that are also abducted and forced to enter into the armies. These girls are then force to service the men in the army and even become their wives. They are also physically and sexually abused. These facts show that not only boys are exposed to the cruelty.
A couple of countries that have struck me are Mozambique and Angola. The leaders in these countries pray on young children and not adults because they know that children are vulnerable. They know that adults would never abide to their rules. Children can't fight back, physically or mentally. These leaders will use threats of violence, drugs, coercion, and any other tactics they need to use in order to get these children to do what they want.
There are provisions that have been taken to try to stop these types of things from happening. Once of the efforts happened in 1990 when the United Kingdom passed the "Convention on the Rights of the Child". This was created to help the children that were abducted and forced into the world of being a child soldier.
How will these children be able to cope once they escape from these armies or are rescued? Who do they turn to? How will they be able to settle back into regular civilization? Should these children once out of the armies go to better places other than where they originated from or should they go to places that will have better situations for them? There should be more programs out there trying to help these children cope and be ready for the REAL world . There could also be camps set up for these victims, something like more rehabilitation centers. There should be places set aside only for these children. The horrible things they have experienced, only they could understand from each other. Outsiders will only judge them. There could also be older escapees who have grown and forgiven and learned that they were not monsters and help these children to regain a purpose in life and they can feel like they amount to something.