November 21, 2007
public speaker - Former child soldier becomes UNICEF ambassador - Reuters South Africa
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former child soldier in Sierra Leone's civil war was named an ambassador for the U. Ishmael Beah lost his family in a rebel attack at about age 12, was kidnapped by Sierra Leone's national army and forced, along with other captured children, to fight a deadly war. His memoir "A Long Way Gone" was a best-seller this year, recounting his remorse over the war and how he eventually found support from a UNICEF rehabilitation program and from a new adoptive family in the United States. Education equipped Beah to become an outspoken defender of children's rights and, now aged 26, he has become a regular public speaker on the plight of children. He said his new role as UNICEF ambassador would give him "more strength to continue to do what I have dedicated my life to, which is to make sure that what happened to me does not continue to happen to other children around the world. Last week, some 230 child soldiers, whose average age was 14, were released from Congo's pro-government militia, according to UNICEF. read more
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