New Adventure ahead: 3 months stay in D.R. Congo with NGO Arche d'Alliance

Now it is getting closer again: the next trip to an adventurous destination. On September 21, 2010 I will head out: flying from Frankfurt/Main to Kigali/Rwanda. Then some means of transportation will bring me to the Congolese border and further to Uvira - the town of my stay for the coming three months.

After having finalized the Masters Of Peace and Security Programm in Hamburg (Thesis: "Child Soldiers At Gun Point - the Ethical Challenges of German Soldiers in Military Conflicts with Armed Children"), I will join the local NGO Arche d'Alliance to learn about their projects and cooperations. One of the fields of their activities lies on the aspects of the child soldier doctrine. Mostly they try to get child soldiers out of rebel groups, implement the particular awareness in the society, act as lobbyists on political level and support the reintegration of former child soldiers into the society.

In my opinion, such work is one of the most important ones in order to reestablish a conflict-torn society. How could a society ever function again, if the children are completely messed up? How could this work, if children are used to killing, raping, beheading or other monstrous deeds? The society must learn about protecting their offspring otherwise they take away any chance of a positive future development.

For further reading on the child soldier doctrine, I like to draw your attention on the book of P.W. Singer: Children At War (non-fiction) or Ishmael Beah: A long way gone (Biography). If interested, I can provide you with my masters thesis (written in German) as well. It gives details and further information on such a terrible and frightening issue.