Ugandan children need our help

I am trying to bring awareness about child soldiers in Uganda. Children younger than me are forced against their own will to fight in wars. They are using children to be soldiers in their war because children are more obedient than adults. They are forced to become soldiers in the army, they don't get a choice whether they're in the army or not.

Children as young as 8 years old are being abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). In the past year and a half, 10,000 children have served unwillingly in the war against the government. Some of the children are soldiers but some are just porters who carry weapons and stuff for the army. The worst part is that young girls have been forced to become wives of the rebels and have children for them.

These actions violate the United Nations Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This set of rules says that countries should set a minimum age of 18 for recruitment into the war efforts.

I wanted to make sure that everybody who reads this newspaper is aware of the horrible tragedy taking place in Uganda even today. This needs to stop! For more information, go to www.un.org/children/conflict/english/uganda.html.

Kaytlyn Oellrich

Cedar Rapids