Lost and found

Former child soldiers in Africa draw on a reservoir of resilience

From the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2008.

Ishmael Beah knows that former child soldiers in war-ravaged African countries can reclaim their lives because that’s just what he did. In 1993, rebels in Sierra Leone killed 13-year-old Beah’s parents and two brothers, forcing him to join their bloody campaign for two years.