Forced to fight
Zach is from Sierra Leone, a country in west Africa where there has been terrible fighting for the last ten years.
Zach got caught up in the war when he was just 12. His parents didn't have the money to send him to school and he ended up living on the streets. He didn't have enough money to eat good food or buy the clothes and games that other kids had. When soldiers asked him if he wanted to earn
some money by fighting it seemed like a good idea and he joined in.
But becoming a soldier meant that Zach had to stop being a child. He couldn't play games with his friends any more and he has terrible memories of what he did and saw when he was a soldier.
Luckily, Zach was taken to Freetown, the capital city. There he heard about a centre for ex-child soldiers, and asked them to look after him. Now he can catch up on the education he has missed and learn to have fun again. What's more, he now lives with boys he had to fight against when he was a soldier. At the centre they try and understand their differences. They have all learnt the hard way that fighting doesn't solve your problems.
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Christian Aid/Clive Shirley
'I'm tired of fighting. I want to go to school and have nice clothes and shoes. I feel bad about what I've done. It upsets me. I have killed lots of people,' says Zach.
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