Ex-child soldier now ambassador
A former child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war was named an ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund, vowing to be an advocate for children worldwide, not just in African war zones.
Ishmael Beah lost his family in a rebel attack when he was about 12, was kidnapped by Sierra Leone’s national army and forced, along with other captured children, to fight a war.
His memoir, “A Long Way Gone,” was a bestseller this year, recounting his remorse over the war and how he eventually found support from a UNICEF rehabilitation program and from an adoptive family in the U.S.
Education equipped Beah to become an outspoken defender of children’s rights. Now 26, he has become a regular public speaker on the plight of children.
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