Child Soldiers

Description

As armed conflict proliferates, increasing numbers of children are exposed to war. Up to half a million are now engaged in conflict worldwide, recruited, either forcibly or voluntarily by militants and armed forces, kids have become the ultimate weapon in war. Focusing on countries with a history of child warfare, these stories are captured by photographers and writers from across the globe exploring the children's time as combatants, demobilisation and rehabilitisation. Included are images from Liberia, Congo, Nepal, Burma, Colombia, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Leora Kahn is the founder of Proof: Media for Social Justice, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create awareness of the issues faced by populations in post-conflict societies and to encourage social change through the use of photography and education. Kahn has served as the director of photography at Workman Publishing and Corbis, and is currently at work on global projects with Amnesty International, Participant Films, and the United Nations. She recently edited the Lucie Award winningDarfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan (powerHouse Books, 2007) in collaboration with Amnesty, and curated an accompanying exhibit that will tour the U.S. this year with the Holocaust Museum Houston. Kahn is currently working on an exhibition in Rwanda with Aegis Trust about Hutu rescuers during the genocide.