Road to Faraway: The Memoirs of A Child Soldier

Title of the Study: Road to Faraway: The Memoirs of A Child Soldier

Type of the Study: Book

Author of the Study: Ishmael Beah

 

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: March 2008, Ankara

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 253

Purpose: To reveal a real life story of a child soldier. It is not that difficult to turn an ordinary child into a killing machine.

 

Content: The book has 21 chapters. The childhood of Ismael Beah that passed in Sierra Leone, West Africa is narrated. Ishmael Beah, an ordinary child lives with his family. Like his coevals worldwide; he listens music, play football, attends school and spends time with his friends. Sierra Leone has one of world’s richest diamond reserves. RUF(Revolutionary United Front), an insurgent rebellion armed group fighting against the government that is backed by Liberia, controls the diamond rich areas and kills innocent people in villages. Child soldiers once kidnapped are used to kill these people. Ishmael Beah’s village is also raided by RUF gerillas and his family got lost. Ishmael ran out with his friends in hope of finding his family. In every single village they reach, they faced hostile people with fear as they were also resembled of as child soldiers. In one of these villages they approaches they came across with governmnet official soldiers fighting against RUF.

These children want to take revench from RUF whom they thought of as the murderers of their families. At last they are child soldiers as well. They became addicted to brown brown that is a mix of cocaine and gun powder. They started killing RUF members and others whom they thought as enemy. After a while they are found by UNICEF representatives and send to Freetown for rehabilitation. Ishmael then goes to New York and continues his education.

Method: Based on real life story.

Excerpt: Rather than playing football, i was on duty at bouts around the village, smoking grass and snorting brown brown that is a mix of cocaine and gun powder that is always on the table. Also I was taking the white pills that i was addicted to. (p.134)

 

Some keywords: Child soldiers, diamonds, substance addiction, UNICEF

 

Children First: Children Living/Working in the Streets

Title of the Study: Children First: Children Living/Working in the Streets

Type of the Study: Booklet

Author of the Study: UNICEF

 

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: Ankara, 2006

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages:

Purpose: Awareness Report on Children Working in the Streets.

 

Method: Literature scanning method has been used.

Excerpt: It is estimated that a least 42.000 children are living or working on the streets in Turkey; however unofficial figures go up to 80.000. Majority of these children are from families with social limitations that have migrated to cities in search of better living standards offered by few municipalities.

Some keywords: Unicef, children living on the streets, children working on the streets