(ANS – Cali) – The Vocational Training Center run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Cali, Colombia, provides help to a lot of youngsters who spent years in the horrors of war as child soldiers. Recently, the National Public Radio did an article –“Years Of Combat Experience, and Just Turning 20” – about the story of two of these young people.

Formerly children training to be soldiers, Luis and Jasmine (now 20) are receiving training of a completely different kind. At the Salesian Vocational Training Center, they are being provided with guidance and education in the hope of starting a new life.

“Luis Bedoya is baby-faced and skinny,” reports the NPR story, by Juan Forero. “And he looks ever the boy when he puts on an industrial-sized apron, thick gloves and a metal helmet — the tools of an apprentice welder at the Don Bosco center in this city in southern Colombia. And Jasmine is in cooking classes, looking forward to higher studies – and maybe someday opening her own restaurant.”

Taken by the army, they were sent to the vocational training and youth center, run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, one of several centers set up to serve former child guerrillas. It's a place where on a typical day, dozens of children happily run around in a big patio, while others play ping-pong and listen to music. Most of the former rebels are in some kind of vocational training — like learning to work on car engines.

“It’s a big complex, complete with classrooms, basketball courts, a dormitory and work rooms. It’s home to boys and girls, as well as many young adults, who defected from the FARC rebels or were taken by the Colombian army,” reports NPR.

Children, including girls, have been recruited by guerrilla groups and even kidnapped and forced to do “dirty work” – often the most dangerous – during the war. Many children are recruited very young and have known nothing but war in their lifetime. Teenagers and even younger children are trained to be soldiers, depriving them of their childhood. Those who survive and escape the nightmare have few places to turn for help.

The struggles in Colombia have lasted more than 40 years. It is a brutal conflict between many different armed groups who struggle for power and control over land. All the armed groups have abused the rights of innocent people. About 5,000 people are killed every year, and most of these are civilians, according to Unicef. Since 1985, more than 2 million people – or 1 in 20 Colombians – have been forced to abandon their homes because of the war.

While the two sides are in peace negotiations, the recruitment of child soldiers by the FARC seems to continue. “About 500 children are in programs like this across the country, but if peace is achieved, experts anticipate a much greater need,” NPR reported.

“We pray that peace does happen,” says Father Mark Hyde, the director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “And when that peace causes a need for more programs like this one, the Salesians will be there to help meet that need.”

Published 13/06/2013