Children not Soldiers!

CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT: DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

-OLUSOLA ALERU.



The subject matter of Children in Armed Conflict also popularly known as Child Soldiers is as age-long as time itself. History records the constant and various use(s) of children during periods of wars and hostilities, most notable internationally being the World Wars.

The Neo and Post World War evidenced mass dementation in our social stability especially as regards children who were forcefully and largely conscripted into armed forces internationally.

Glancing our minds back to the various world wars and civil hostilities, many children were subjected to the violent and obnoxious whims of leaders with obviously questionable stable minds. Many of them were made to fight at the front lines, subjected to a hazardous lifestyle consisting of forcefully killing, raping and several other acts of inhumane brutality towards others. They were largely underfed whilst strong liquor and smoking of hard substances became their staple meals. These children were wholly robbed and denied of the sanctity and innocence that comes with childhood. The females were used as young as twelve-thirteen years as sex slaves. I vividly recall the true life story of a mother during a period of civil hostility in Africa who was viciously raped by 8 men and was subjected to watch her girl child less than thirteen years of age, go through this same torture of being molested by 8 insatiable savages.

These Children who in the first instance were inhumanely made into savages and plunged into a life of gloom, the only life they know really, are now being turned against and stigmatized by the same society that made them what they are. This in itself is hostility against nature and nature sure has a way of fighting for itself. The question is, who can stand the wrath of nature when it comes?

This quare has in a lot of ways led to International disarray with many countries countering themselves even on the most mundane of issues.

As such, the issue of Children in armed conflict and the society's approach to them is indeed a great threat to Global Economic development. More so, the future of International development, in terms of trade, treaty, tourism and in fact all aspects of humanity is under serious threat as the supposed holders of the fort have been handed down a warped system where aggrieved children born into unlikely circumstances can no longer trust their neighbouring countries with anything and if this Trust which is the fulcrum of any dealing Internationally is already breaking within itself, we can only hope that Things do not fall apart, as the center of trust is fast crumbling and not holding together.

Queen Mathilde of Belgium on this notably remarked at a conference on February 10, 2017, that there is an urgent need to provide a stable and secure environment for our children and for those already affected, patient rehabilitation as “Peace, Justice, Strong Institutions, Social Cohesion and Investment Partnerships are all equally essential for the protection of vulnerable people”.

The crux of the matter is this, there is the need for urgent attention to ensuring that countries all over avoid civil conflicts on the one hand and foster peace on the other. Also, Sound laws and legal institutions should be created to serve as a fortification against the use of children or other vulnerable people should there be civil hostility or armed conflict. This will help in the security and stability of the children in the society against the pre and post effect of hostilities.

With regards to the Child soldiers, formidable institutions should be properly established and run by individual countries and even by partnerships internationally. And the personnel involved should be well trained professionals who will patiently guide these children through appropriate rehabilitation and therapy. Also, vocations should be taught to them, so they can be stable and balance by the time they are released back into the society. Finally, the Employment sectors should have flexible rules as to the recruitment of these ones, because rigid rules can result to unconcious stigmatization of the rehabilitated cbildren which if not properly addressed may defeat the purpose of the rehabilitation in the first instance.

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Meet Olusola Aleru

Olusola is one of the most profound and intelligent persons that her generation has to offer.  She has moved ahead of the present into the future and has set in motion the laying of foundations for the guarantee of a better future for generations to come. She has achieved this through leadership training,  hands on roles, research and profound thoughts preserved for coming generations through exceptional articles.

Olusola believes in investing in every child. This profound belief propelled her to research possible impediments to the successful growth of children of which she found the conscription of children into the army as one.

Olusola will be giving an apt discussion centered around child soldiers around the world. The story, the bane and the struggles of the children.
She takes a look at the long and short term effects of involving children in armed conflict.
She is well informed and poised to make suggestions about this issue as a result of the wealth of knowledge she wields to this extent.

She is a law student with keen interest in Forensic law and Arbitration. In her spare time, she reads, writes, inspires others and loves to research.
Olusola is a graduate of Law from the University of Ibadan and is currently a student at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja.

There is no doubt that Olusola is set to change the world and it is a privilege to have her enlighten us about Child Soldiers and the likely consequences of engaging children in armed conflict.

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On Celebrating Women.

On celebrating her victories not variance; a discuss on heightened zeal in the international scene.

It is no news that the quest to ensure the freedom of women, their total emancipation from whatever limitations they are or were made to face is one which has been recurrent and has attracted actions by major players all over the world. However, the question as to whether these actions on the whole are properly guided or driven by uncontrolled zeal is to be asked.

The possibility of women being further repressed by misguided actions is one which hovers and seeps through actions and campaigns centered around women at any given opportunity. How do i mean? Often times, in the celebration of women, there is the possibility of exalting the barriers, challenges and hurdles that women face through ideas or talks that expose the daily challenges of a woman over her victories and success.

The celebration of a woman should mirror her strength, her capacity and her achievements amongst others. Her challenges may be mentioned but it must not become the crux of the celebration of the woman.

The time for women to really be seen as having requisite capacities to take on the world and maximise their potentials is now in its fullness. The opportunities made available to a woman must not be borne out of pity, or a disguised means of reemphasising the stereotypes. No one wins a war by playing small for the enemy to pity or be lenient with him. A woman must be celebrated by her capacity and ability to break out of the shackles and barriers that the society has placed on her.

The need for moderation in the expression of zeal geared towards the achievement of gender equality (Goal 5, SDGs) cannot be over-emphasised. Uncontrolled zeal has done more harm than good. It has passed on the wrong message to girls growing to become women. Girls are first made to understand the likely problems they may face instead of their capacities. They are made to attack their future and not ease into it based on the possibilities it holds and the requisite capacities they possess to take on the world regardless of stereotypes. 

It is agreed that girls must be made to understand the walls built by stereotypes but not at the expense of training them to first be graceful, strong and focused women.

The antagonistic approach towards the world as expressed by many women support groups or individuals has further plunged the modern woman into an imaginary battle that she may never have to fight or one that she could have handled better but for the mismatched weapons of antagonism, anger and improperly emphasised limitations placed in her arsenal by the persons given the responsibility of passing on knowledge and tradition to her.

The woman must understand that the battle geared towards the  understanding and respect of a woman is taking too long and as such a new plan of action must be devised. A plan of action that does not magnify her barriers or further perpetuate the societal woes she may have to face, rather a plan of action that demands respect not begs for it. A plan of action of conviction; not conviction for the world but a personal conviction about her abilities, her strength, her goals, her big dreams and her ability to take the world without calling for sentiments but merit, for the worth of the work she has put into becoming who she desires to be while achieving them on a level playing ground with male counterparts.

Women must not be carried away by the patronising undertones that the excessive zeal in promoting a woman carry.   They  must be wise to pick the lessons and ignore the excessive zeal as it may push them to either go overboard, lose faith in their abilities or seek opportunities specially created (which often times, further perpetuates the societal ills against women, why seek a quota for a position that involves competing with male counterparts?). The modern woman must embrace her strengths and forget the barriers, do that which she is perceived incapable of, be a silent worker but a loud achiever, that way, the societal stereotypes will fizzle out in the face of her acts for change and not mere call for change.

This post is published in commemoration of the International Women's Day!

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Role of Volunteering in Community Service

By; Giwa-Ayilara Demola

Volunteering is an organic activity which has been happening for so many decades. The social anthropological studies which have been carried out on primitive tribes in the last 50 years continue to describe egalitarian societies where kinship groups and social groups are formed on the basis of sharing limited resources, having mutual interests and being lead by collective action. Before the establishment of the welfare state, families and neighbours supported each other’s health and social care as a response to unmet needs with their communities.

“It has only been because of mutual support and mutual action that people have been able to survive across the generations. In fact in the 19th century it was the mutual groups that created the embryo of the welfare state” (Rt Hon David BlunkettMPCreative Extremists Conference NI, 2009)

A community development framework must offer a clear structure around which volunteering can be positioned and recognised, as a way of achieving successful community development. It is important that people are given the opportunity to identify their own needs and desires, to take action to exert influence on the decisions which affect them and to be facilitated to find ways to improve the quality of their ownlives, the communities in which they live, and societies of which they are a part.

Research has shown that the most effective and sustainable community development programmes are those which involve local people at all stages. The times of sending random peopleinto communities, especially paid staff to do things to a community rather than support them to do things for themselves has shown to be an ineffective model. Local people are more likely to invest in a program of work and be actively engaged with it if they are given ownership and meaningful ways of being involved. 

In the general perspective, the concept of volunteering refers to rendering of service by choice of or free will for the benefit of the wider community by an individual, group, or institution without necessarily expecting monetary gain in full knowledge and appreciation of being a volunteer.

Volunteers as individuals and groups contribute to the process of community development “by committing time and energy for the benefit of society and the community, the environment or individuals outside or in addition to ones immediate family. It is undertaken freely and without concern for financial gain.” (Department for Social Development, 2011)

Role of volunteering in community service.

Volunteering is relevant to all aspect of life and volunteers are making a positive impact on economic, social, cultural and environmental issues. Volunteering can empower people and communities to fulfill their potential and contribute to socialchange. It can also lead a greater sense of ownership of betteringtheir community. Local people hold the insight and knowledge of local issues which is useful when planning programmes of work with community development professionals.‘’Constructive engagement can lead to positive developments in terms of health, job creation, innovation and crime prevention ‘’(Davis, 2007). Volunteering itself is good for individual health and the more engaged communities are as a collective, the healthier they become socially and economically (Volunteering England, 2008). Volunteer activity provides a network of social relationships that connect people to each other and theircommunities. It is this connection that is vital to building democratic, healthy and self sustaining communities.

Voluntary organizations are key players in the economy in their own right as employers and service providers, adding to the overall economic output of a country and reducing the burden on government spending. The sector also plays a key role of creating the conditions where the economy can flourish by investing in people through training, boosting skills and improving the employability of people on the margins of the labour 
market.

The volunteering makes a significant contribution to the economy all around the world.

“According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies 2011, approximately 140 million people in the 37 countries engage in volunteer work in a typical year. If those 140 million volunteers comprised the population of a country, it would be the 9th largest country in the world. Those 140 million volunteers represent the equivalent of 20.8 million full-time equivalent jobs. It‘s estimated that volunteers contribute around $400 billion to the global economy annually. These estimates are produced using data on hours volunteered or the wage-based dollar value. One interpretation that could be given to this wage-based estimate is that it reflects what users of volunteer labour would have had to pay if they had had to hire the labor that instead was freely given to them”.

The Community Development process is underpinned by five key values, these are (1) Strengthening social connections (2)Building strong, safe, cohesive community, (3) Enhancing civic engagement, (4) Equality and Anti-discrimination and(5) Delivering public goods and services. Volunteering is one of the main ways in which the principles of community development work are realized.

Strengthening social connections

The volunteering plays as the bridge of different parts in the society, which concerned of benefits and demands for different social sectors. Most of the voluntary organizations (91.7%) in a survey by (United Nation Volunteers) UNV reported some form of 

collaboration with other organizations, government and private sector following the SDGs 17. The nature of collaboration on volunteering includes: community partnership, networking, advocacy, funding, support, and invitation to participate in events. Many voluntary organizations also share information with local government and community to push forward community services, including department of education, environment, and energy and so on. This illustrates the crosscutting nature of volunteering throughout and between the different sectors.

Building strong, safe, cohesive community

Through co-operation with government, enterprise, community, the voluntary sector is key partners in the regeneration of deprived communities. The service sector contributes significantly to building community cohesion – creating links and social networks in communities, giving people the opportunity to come together and develop social network, for example, through sports, voluntary arts and youth clubs, institutional co-operation and community identification. Volunteering helps to foster greater trust among citizens and developing norms of solidarity and reciprocity that are essential for stability. The service sector would also help build a safer community and reduce crime. In a study by Putnam (2000) it reported strong inverse relationships between levels of voluntary membership and crime. He found a strong negative correlation between his measure of social capital and homicide. Kawachireported strong negative correlations between measures of voluntary membership and assault, robbery and burglary in the United States (Kawachi, 1999; Kawachi 2000).

Enhancing civic engagement

Alexis de Toqueville (1988), in his classic study of American democracy, saw volunteering is a form of civic engagement through which individuals can make meaningful contributions to their own visions of societal well-being. volunteering increases people‘s confidence in ability to work with local government or state government to meet a range of community needs, such as fixing a pothole or getting an issue on a statewide ballot. People also feel more civic obligations, and are more active in participating in various civic activities, including voting in elections and serving on a jury. The National Survey on Volunteerism of Kenya reports that volunteering helps build a confident, democratic Kenya. With a strong ethos of volunteer management, voluntary organizations have embrace ideals of civic participation and active citizenship. The service sector promotes the involvement of people in the lives of communities and wider society through its projects and through volunteering. Volunteering itself has been about people who step forward to help others whose lives are very different from their own, without judgment or prejudice, to work with people affected by drug or alcohol misuse, people with mental health problems or those affected by war and conflict. Volunteering has thus been a way of creating a climate of optimism, hope and a confident Kenya.

Equality and Anti-discrimination

Challenging oppression and promoting diversity is an important aspect of community development. Volunteering help in promoting good community relations by encouraging honest and open dialogue, enabling people to have a better understanding of and respect for each other’s views and opinions, accept people for who they are irrespective of believe or ethnic group. It works at grass roots level to ensure that all residents of the communitycan live together in a safe, pleasant, vibrant and shared community where everyone feels equal and welcome.

Delivering public goods and services

Volunteering can provide excellent public goods and services, especially that not available (or not available in sufficient amounts) due to both market and government failure. The assumption here is that volunteering fills gaps in the supply of goods and services that are desired by their beneficiaries, but are not available from either private commercial or public sector providers. And even if they are available, some members of society may not be able to access them because of binding budget or other constraints (e.g. imperfect 

information). Voluntary organizations have contributed to planning and designing of 

service delivery through powerful advocacy to ensure that services meet the needs of 

specific groups or individuals. Such service includes 

• Pipeline to public service careers

• Support to the youth education

• Lead in sustainable development

• Response to climate change

Impacts of community service on Volunteers

“There is a saying that volunteers don’t get paid not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless” (Voluntary service overseas) VSO.  Volunteering has certain positive impact on the volunteer, such as social recognition, better health and self-esteem, building résumés, training and career enhancement; economic benefits and capacity in the labor market. Service sectors provide volunteers with the opportunity to explore different career paths, gain job-related skills, develop leadership skills, and network with community leaders, while engaged in activities that strengthen communities.

According to the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP), more than three quarters (79%) of volunteers said that their volunteer activities helped them with their interpersonal skills, such as understanding people better, motivating others, and dealing with difficult situations. Just over two thirds (68%) of volunteers said that volunteering helped them to develop better communication skills (63%) reported increased knowledge about global issues and issues related to their volunteering. The percentage of volunteers who reported gaining specific skills as a result of volunteering increased steadily with the number of hours they contributed.

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Unlock your mind; READ!

A misguided conception in the face of emerging technology and advancement in our world hovers around the globe without restraint. It is as regards the benefits of reading. It is fast becoming a subject of debate, To read or not to read; a question of relevance in a new world.
The importance of reading in international development cannot be over emphasized in the face of the need to achieve sustainable development.

Much has been said about reading on an international and collaborative level, however, we will discuss the importance of ensuring personal development before taking on the global mandate for sustainable development.
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To develop the world, you must develop yourself first, then develop through the journey of International Development.
This is easy to achieve. Reading is a powerful tool to unlock your mental capacity as it adds new knowledge to you, broadens your mind, challenges you to think, it is a mental exercise that refreshes your brain and expands it. Reading gives you an edge over those who don't and takes you miles ahead of them.

Reading introduces you to your strengths and capacity which will equip you to develop the world.
Reading is the light that every generation needs to guide its actions towards the achievement of a better life and world for it to thrive.
The books you read must not be centered around a particular area, it needs not be in relation to formal education always, you need to be a vast reader to thrive in the new world regardless of the lies you might have been told as regards any form of alternative to reading.


Resolve to enjoy reading as many shy away from at because they feel it is boring. Reading is enjoyable especially when you bear in mind the attendant benefits of self development and improvement as highlighted above.

Create an interesting reading atmosphere for yourself by reading while you do what you love doing the most for example, cooking, soccer, singing and so on.

Reading is made easier today in the face of technology designed to augment it, the existence of eBooks, audiobooks, eLibraries, reading softwares and so on make it easier to read, please take advantage of whichever media you have access to in order to develop yourself.
The truth that we fail to tell at all times is that failure to read is the quickest path to extinction and irrelevance, as failure to read keeps you away from the knowledge you need to thrive in the world and remain relevant wherever you are.



Slaves were not allowed to learn to read during the era of slavery because their masters understood the liberating capacity of reading.
For every second you spend reading, you emancipate your mind, learn something new or improve already acquired knowledge, an addition is made to your life and you are better positioned to make a change.

Zeal and action are important to ensure sustainable development, however, these will be misguided without research and acquisition of knowledge. If the actions taken are not borne out of research and careful study of a particular area, the actions will fail and may produce fatal results.

To take on the global mandate of international development, you must design a "self" mandate of personal development which is first achievable through reading thereby acquiring knowledge which equips you ultimately for the global mandate of achieving sustainable development.

The greatest gift you can give to the coming generation is the ability to read and write. Buy a book for an indigent child and teach at least one child to read today.

Emancipate yourself; READ.

This post is written in commemoration of the World Book Day.



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