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News and Events : News 03-04
Press Release
May 27, 2004
Exiled Liberian child rights activist and NMH graduate Kimmie Weeks
returns to West Africa to study the use of children in armed conflicts
Northfield, Mass.-Exiled Liberian child rights activist Kimmie Weeks, who
graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School in 2001, will return to his
native Liberia in August after five years of political exile in the United
States of America. Weeks fled Liberia in 1998 when security forces loyal
to the regime of Charles Taylor sought to assassinate him for a report he
had released on the recruitment and training of children as soldiers by
the Liberian military.
Weeks’s return visit is part of a global campaign to study and bring
international attention to the use of children in armed conflicts.
According to Weeks, “the issue of the use of children in war is an
important one, which unfortunately is not receiving the international
attention it deserves. It is my hope that this campaign will bring new
awareness to the use of children in armed conflicts. My ultimate goal is
to find ways to ensure that children who are given arms can be disarmed
and reintegrated into society as useful members."
Weeks hopes to visit each continent where child soldier’s disarmament and
demobilization are in progress or have been successful and then apply
those success strategies to countries still actively recruiting and using
children in armies. He will begin the first phase of this campaign in West
Africa.
Weeks’s journey starts in August 2004 in Sierra Leone where it is
estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 children fought in the conflict. Weeks and
his team of researchers will arrive in Freetown, Sierra Leone in early
August to begin talks with government officials, and agencies who worked
on the disarmament and are currently running rehabilitation programs for
Sierra Leone’s child soldiers. Weeks explains, “This will be a fact
finding mission. Sierra Leone was successfully able to disarm hundreds of
child soldiers and is currently in the process of reintegrating them back
into society.” The team is expected to spend one week working in Sierra
Leone before departing for Liberia.
The visit to Liberia will include monitoring the disarmament of hundreds
of children currently serving in rebel forces, meeting with Liberian
legislator and policy makers to propose stronger legislation to protect
children from war. Weeks will also meet with child soldiers and the
agencies responsible for reintegrating them into society.
Weeks’s aspirations can be summed up in his own words: “As I go to
Liberia, I go with an ear to listen to the hopes and dreams of children
and adults, I’ll hopefully come out and be able to tell the world that
this is what the people in Liberia and Sierra Leone want. Stop trying to
do what you think is right for them…let’s all listen to the people
themselves, let’s pay keen attention to the child victims, and most
importantly, let’s empower them to rise from being victims and become
triumphant heroes and heroines."
About Weeks
Weeks started his activism at the age of 10 by organizing a group of local
volunteers to clean communities littered by the debris of war. That same
year, he also volunteered in understaffed temporary hospitals caring for
sick babies and children. Since then Weeks has served as founder for
several humanitarian organizations in Liberia including the Voice of the
Future Inc., which currently works as an implementing partner with the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In 1996, he established and
chaired the Children’s Disarmament Campaign, an effort to convince local
warlords to disarm the 20,000 Liberian child soldiers fighting and killing
each other.
Week’s third organization, the Children’s Bureau of Information, continues
to produce radio programs disseminating messages of reconciliation in
Liberia and Sierra Leone. Today he is an internationally acclaimed child
rights activist, environmentalist, and motivational speaker as well as
Senior Planner & Advisor to the 2004 UN Children’s Conference on the
Environment, Ambassador of UNESCO’s Manifesto 2000 for a culture of peace
and non-violence, Director of Youth Action International, and on the board
of advisors to Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES).
When asked what his accomplishments were in regard to children’s rights in
Liberia and globally, Weeks said “ It's hard to measure one's
accomplishments when so many children are still suffering and dying every
day from preventable causes. Yes, a few lives might have been saved
because of some of my work, and yes, a few more children might be in
school as a result, but these achievements pale in comparison to the
30,000 children who die every day from preventable causes.”
Besides having spoken to many prominent world leaders, Weeks has been
recognized by various organizations for his devotion and determination to
promote peace and his efforts to reach out to the children impacted by
conflict situations. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors
such as the Martin Luther King Peace Medal, Activist of the Year 2000,
Award for Heroism, Goodwill Games Medallion, Child Rights Activist Award
'96, '98, '99, Most Influential Youth Award, among others.
Weeks’s return journey will be documented by a BBC film crew producing a
documentary called “Kimmie Weeks: Back to the Front”.
CONTACT: Ann J Raj at 413.330.7729, annjraj@yahoo.com;
www.PeaceForKids.org, division of Youth Action International
Deb Holman at 413.498.3376, dholman@nmhschool.org
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