On International Red Hand Day, Salesians Review Service to Former Child Soldiers

Through the Mary Help of Christians School in Liberia’s Archdiocese of Monrovia, Salesian missionaries are providing a “foundation of education and support for young students who would otherwise have limited opportunities to better their lives.”

Started in 1993, the school that serves over 560 students has “a feeding program, which serves just over 100 of those students, ensuring they receive a nutritious healthy meal each day.”

There is also an after-school program, an initiative that “gives former child soldiers and other young people the opportunity to experience some of the joys of childhood," says Fr. Baek. 

Thanks to this program, the youth can participate in recreational activities, sports, cultural troupe where they sing, dance, act, practice African acrobatics and perform at local functions, the Cleric explains.

The youth also have access to "vocational training and academic courses as well as a women’s development program for women to learn self-reliance," he adds in the report shared with ACI Africa. 

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Meanwhile, SDB members in Sierra Leone have been rehabilitating child soldiers since 2001. 

Located within the Archdiocese of Freetown, Don Bosco Fambul has "become one of the country’s leading child welfare organizations—offering food, clothing, crisis intervention services, shelter, educational opportunities, long-term counseling and family reunification," Fr. Baek says in the report shared with ACI Africa. 

The institution with a 120-person reaches out to thousands of street children in the region each year. 

"The organization has implemented several interventions for children who have been abandoned, experienced violence and abuse, and/or have found themselves in situations of prostitution," says the Director of Salesian Missions. 

Don Bosco Fambul’s Child Hotline is an "around-the-clock counseling call center staffed by social workers—along with other trained professionals—offering hope and services for children who are living on the street," he says. 

Fr. Baek adds, "Staff working on the Child Hotline field receives close to 700 calls each week from children in crisis situations asking for advice and support. Roughly 100 to 120 of the calls require immediate attention and follow-up." 

According to the Salesian Cleric, after the staff at Don Bosco Fambul engage with the at-risk youth, they are introduced to rehabilitation and reunification programs. 

"These transformative and life-saving programs use a holistic approach that includes caring for the basic needs of each participant as well as offering personalized medical, psychological, pedagogical, social and spiritual care," he explains.   

Established by the UN on 12 February 2002, the Red Hand Day aims at drawing attention to the fates of child children who are forced to serve as soldiers.