We are a grassroots, charitable 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that rescues child soldiers and children in armed conflict in Southeast Asia and Latin America and provides them with long-term care and rehabilitation through adulthood, at which point we either send them onto university or provide them with agricultural land to farm or help them find other career options.

We rescue child soldiers out of resistance armies and drug cartels. In Asia, we demobilize children from one of the largest drug cartel armies in the world, as well as several resistance armies.  In Latin America, we focus on providing alternatives for children involved in the drug wars.

As of right now, there is a lot of attention and aide reaching child soldiers in Africa, but we are one of the only known groups working in the rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Asia and Latin America. As much as 1/4 of the world’s child soldiers reside in our primary target country, Burma (Myanmar), which is the largest concentration of child soldiers in any one nation in the world. Other project locations, such as Philippines, Sri Lanka and Mexico, have endured longstanding violent conflicts with little outside help or media attention on the effects on the children involved in these armed conflicts. Mexico is also currently listed as one of the most dangerous countries in the world, due to kidnappings and drug-related violence.

As previously mentioned, the regions in which we work are extremely dangerous, restricted-access areas, which makes it very difficult for groups to get in and provide effective aide. Our national leaders come from generations (over 120 years) of working in these volatile locations, which has given us an open door into these otherwise closed places.

Child soldiers can be anywhere from 3-17 years old, with up to 1/3 of them being female. We usually target children 15 and under, with the average age being 9-12. Their tasks vary, depending upon their age. The younger children are used more as gofers and drug “mules,” as well as for hard labor, while the older children are also used for things like making guns, providing surveillance/security, and training for combat. The children suffer an array of abuses, including physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, and psychological abuse. They are treated as prisoners and are threatened with execution if they try to escape. They live in extremely harsh conditions and do not know love, safety, or comfort. They are, in fact, slaves of these armies.

We are able to negotiate diplomatically with local governments and militaries to give us children largely through education incentives. They actually turn the children over to us voluntarily. These governments see the benefit of our programs, because by educating the next generation, we are helping to sustain the future of their nations.

Fact: our major target region in Burma has a 1% literacy rate, so our children’s private high school education puts them in the upper tier of their society.
Fact: most resistance armies are fighting because they feel marginalized. If you come and serve a society’s needs, they are more likely to work with you. 

The vast majority of children were conscripted because they were orphans and there was nowhere else for them to go; however, there are many cases of children being kidnapped or turned over by their parents or caregivers because of extreme poverty. No matter what their conscription entailed, most of them were subjected to this life against their will and long to be released.

In Mexico, kids grow up in slums, join drug gangs, and are used by the cartels in wars for control of the lucrative trade. In the Philippines, families dedicate their children to defending and avenging their people, thereby perpetuating historical cycles of violence and blood feuds, as well as pursuing ethnic, political and religious "cleansing."  

We have established homes where we rehabilitate and raise rescued children, allowing them to grow up in a loving environment until they are ready to be reintegrated into society as healthy adults.  Children both live in and attend school at these group homes. Not only do they receive love and attention from the staff, but they also have a family of “siblings” who have all endured similar treatment. We also run education programs where children live with or return to their families, but are engaged with us in school and extra-curricular programs like soccer to keep them out of gangs and military training. 

Our homes are located within the countries where the children are rescued. If we were to take them out of their home countries, they would lose their heritage and national identity, which would defeat the purpose of raising them as the future agents of positive change in their cultures.

We have a team of committed nationals who are trained to work directly with rescued children, serving as their parents, counselors, and teachers. In the Philippines, adults who were once child soldiers themselves are some of the key participants. Not only is it impossible for our projects to have a Western presence, but it is also more helpful for house parents, teachers, and caregivers to share the children’s culture and language.

We have been working with children at risk in Southeast Asia since 1994, but launched our intentional child soldier demobilization strategy in 1998.  After years of strategic building, we successfully negotiated the rescue of 30 child soldiers in 2005, and to date (2010) we have 474 orphans and children at risk in our care.  More than two hundred of these are child soldiers we have rescued. In 2009, we launched our Mexico and Philippines projects. It is important to note that our rate of growth increases each year.

No, we are not affiliated with Invisible Children, although we are never opposed to collaboration.  We are similar to Invisible Children in that we both focus on the issue of child soldiers, but our approach and geographic focus are different. Due to the nature of our Asian and Latin American target areas, few to no options exist for former child soldiers.  Therefore, we have had to create these programs from the ground up and personally maintain them. We also demobilize child soldiers instead of working primarily with children who are already out of an armed group.  In nearly all cases, our national staff is directly negotiating the rescue/release of the children.