The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) provided small group and individual counseling to over 6,400 men, women and children who survived torture and war related trauma from Sierra Leone's Civil War. In 2007, they launched a new initiative in Freetown. The anti-trafficking in persons project provided direct mental health care to survivors.
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Ishmael Beah Ishmael Beah was a child soldier during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Armies often target children as soldiers because they are easy to manipulate. Ishmael became separated from his family at the age of 12 years old when his town got attacked by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF was known to be ruthless and torture its many victims. Beah was recruited as a soldier for breakaway Sierra Leone soldiers, they were opposed the RUF but had similar tactics. The boys at the army camp were exposed to drugs, and trained to kill. When he was 15 he was saved by UNICEF and brought to the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown where he was put in a rehab center. He spent 8 months there readjusting to life outside the war. He was released to his uncle who lived in the city, but when war broke out in Freetown and his uncle died Ishmael knew he had to leave. He entered Guinea illegally and flew to America, where a woman he knew from a conference about child soldiers took him in. In New York he went to school, wrote his memoir A Long Way Gone, and graduated Oberlin college. He is now a U.N. ambassador for children affected by war.
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Mariatu Kamara12 year old Mariatu Kamara was captured by rebel soldiers and had her hands cut off by a machete. At first she thought it was too good to be true when they said she could go, until they told her to choose which hand she wanted to be cut off first as a punishment. She begged for them to just kill her instead. After her hands had been mutilated, she stumbled to a nearby village where she was taken to a hospital for treatment. When she woke up after her wounds had been treated, the doctor told her she was pregnant. Mariatu was still a young girl and didn't even know how babies were made. After the doctor explained it to her, the 12 year old realized she had been raped.
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Sexual abuse victimsJust like many other girls and young women, Laura Conteh was captured in 1999 when she was only 12 from her village, Binkolo. For the next 3 years she was forced to stay with the rebels. Most of her time was spent doing "Women's Work" such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water etc. Although none of these activities required one, she had to carry a gun. The sexual abuse started the first night she was kidnapped. One man claimed her as his "Bush Wife" but that didn't stop other men from raping her. She became pregnant and had her son at the age of 14. When girls came back to their villages, their families sometimes would not accept them because they were with the rebels, even though it was against their will. Families shunned them because they were "Stained" by sex, and often believed their daughters had been enjoying their time with the rebels.
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