Finding Reason: Child Soldiers Who Enlist “Voluntarily”

While many young children are abducted or forced to become child soldiers, there is a group of teens and young adults that actually have chosen this life for themselves. Pierre, a 17-year-old former child soldier, has lived through this experience twice and states very simply the reason he joined. "I joined twice, because I had nothing to do. The first time was in 2006. The recruiters in the camp promised me food, a job, and a military career. It didn't take much to get me to go into the bush and try my luck."

A KID OR A KILLERPROJECT AK-47February 6, 2015Comment

Our Latest Visit to Mindanao

We climbed up a steep hill, past many makeshift houses, and surveyed the view. This village looked like many other villages I had visited over the years. But our guide, a key local advocate for Project AK-47, assured me there were plenty of soldiers (men, women and children) stationed just beyond the trees, watching us. We had just arrived at one of the many villages that house and station rebel soldiers in the hills of Mindanao, Philippines. We had been invited to meet with one of the most locally influential communist ideologists, Commander V. She amasses armies to fight the corrupt Philippine government and stand for the rights of the peasant farmers who have been trapped for many years in a corrupt system.

THE TEAMGarrison SnellJanuary 11, 2015Comment

What If We Can Change Their Future? (A Special New Video)

"What if?" is a phrase full of power. It can force open the imagination and drive the downtrodden to fight against their oppressors. Great leaders ask "What if?"when inspiration is needed. Innovators ask "What if?" when the status quo isn't good enough. And we, at Project AK-47, have asked "What if?" for many years, questioning the reality of the kids who live as child soldiers all over our world and refusing to believe that this reality is permanent.

A KID OR A KILLERGarrison SnellDecember 11, 2014Comment

From a Victim to a Survivor: Marie Tonie

We are often told to use the term survivor instead of victim. But how does one move from being a victim to becoming a survivor? For those who are victims to tragedies you do not just wake up the next day and feel like you are now a survivor, but instead the struggle has typically just started and you feel more like a victim than ever before.

RESCUE STORIESPROJECT AK-47August 8, 2014Comment