Voices

David, aged 17, was abudcted by soliders on his way home form school in October. David, aged 17, was abudcted by soliders on his way home form school in October (Copyright: Kate Holt / Save the Children, )

David and Gerad

David and Gerard were abducted as they walked home from school near their village. They were taken to a school that was being used as a training camp by an armed group. The training was hard and they were beaten often and told they had to forget everything they’d learned before because they were soldiers now. After two days, they ran away and found safety with MONUC [the UN mission in DRC] who handed their care over to Save the Children. They’ve had no news from their families and it’s unsafe for them to return to their village, so they’re now living with a foster family supported by us.

David's story

“Where we used to go to a school, we’d sometimes see the armed group pass by, looking to recruit children. One day, as we were walking home, the road in front of us was blocked by the soldiers. We were taken to their camp. There were twelve of us. In the camp, they taught us how to fight and shoot. And they beat us often.

“We spent two days in that camp. During the second day we managed to run away. At first we ran home to our houses, but in the night the solders came to look for us. So our parents said ‘run to MONUC’.

“At the MONUC camp, they took us in and looked after us for two weeks. Somebody registered us and took us to Goma. In Goma, MONUC contacted Save the Children who came to take care of us and found a foster family to look after us.

“We were only in the army for two days and we didn’t experience any fighting. But we were made very tired by the training and the beatings. That’s why we left. They beat us to make us forget about life at home and school. They told us we were to forget everything that we’d learnt before. They told us that now we were solders, we’d never be able to go back.

Gerard, aged 16 , was abudcted by soliders on his way home form school in October. Gerard, aged 16 , was abudcted by soliders on his way home form school in October (Copyright: Kate Holt / Save the Children, )“The training camp was an old school that the armed group had captured. They’d sent the girls and older teachers home. The younger teachers were made to stay. There were lots of others in the camp – children and adults. All the children were between 13 and 17 years old. There were no girls. The two of us were together in the camp, with other children from our school.

“Eight of us escaped to MONUC that day. We were all from the same school. The other four who were captured with us are still there with the armed group. We had suffered a lot. At MONUC we didn’t speak with the other children about anything, except how we had escaped.

“We want to go back to live with our parents, but we are frightened that the soldiers are still there and will capture us again. We’ve had no news from them.

“We hope one day to go back to school. And we hope that good people will liberate and rescue the other children. They are forced to do things they don’t want to do.

“Life here is much better because we are totally safe now.”

Project background

War, hunger and disease have killed nearly 4 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the last seven years. One in every five children dies before reaching their fifth birthday. In the east, more than 1 million internally displaced people still need help to meet their basic needs. The fighting has destroyed the economy and infrastructure, as well as the social fabric of families and communities.

We started work here in 1994, helping children who had fled the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Since then:
• we’ve secured the release of 2,865 children involved with armed groups
• we’re helping 26,661 children go to primary school
• we’re reuniting 4,514 separated children with their families
• we’re vaccinating 46,709 children
• and we’re providing food supplements for 1,500 malnourished children.

We’re currently supporting 19 children who have been removed from armed groups and are living with foster families around Goma. We’ve reunited many more children with their original families. The foster families receive support from Save the Children to pay for clothes, food and other essentials for the children that they care for.

David and Gerard were brought to Save the Children on 13 October, 2008. Save the Children’s partner is searching for their parents, but it’s hard because the area is so unsafe.

Find out more

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