YouSaid · the spoken record

Forest Whitaker

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9
first
2021-06-28
most recent
2021-06-28
sittings or episodes
1
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un-security-council

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  1. “From being a former child soldier to a role model that influences many youths within my community and outside.” These are the words of a young man who, like many children and youths affected by conflict, has been sacrificed and traumatized, children and youths that society too often stigmatizes and marginalizes. Yet, here they come to us with a message of hope and resilience. And they ask simple questions of us and the members of this assembly: Will you take the time to listen to us? Will you have the strength to see the positive in us?”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  2. “When he enrolled with us, in 2017, we took this energy and trained him for over a year to develop the skills and the confidence he needed to fulfil his dreams. After years implementing projects at our side, Benson has become a respected figure in his community. He has created a business, mediated conflicts and informed populations on such issues as Gender-Based Violence or, more recently, COVID-19. He hosts a weekly radio talk show and has recently been elected in an official position. Benson recently told us of his journey with us and I want to quote him because his words fully capture the reason why we are gathered today: “I did not lose sight because the seeds of hope were planted and nurtured in me.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  3. “Our approaches and resources may be different, but we share the conviction that seen as real people whose capacity for resilience can be nurtured with unique benefits for the community. They have the right to a second chance. This is what Benson, a WPDI volunteer from Northern Uganda told me. Benson Lugwar was abducted in 2004 at the age of eight by the LRA in a raid that killed his parents and siblings. For two years, he was forced to witness and commit acts of violence, including during the infamous Lira massacre in a camp of internally displaced persons. His trials forged him and, despite what we may expect, they gave him the will to become a change-maker, a peacebuilder. “Never again” became his motto: he did not want other children to go through the same ordeal as he did.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  4. “We work to rekindle the link between children affected by conflict and their community, providing them skills, opportunities, and trauma healing. We are not alone in this effort. Other organizations are working in the same direction. I can think of my friend Sam Okello, one of the first former child soldiers I came to meet, who created a campus, Hope North, to provide shelter and skills to children and youth affected by conflict. I could name another figure, Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe and the orphanage she runs in Gulu to teach tailoring to girls rescued from armed groups. Larger institutions are very active across different continents, like War Child with their programmes around the world.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  5. “The aid worker’s eyes filled with tears as he told me that once this boy returned home, he killed his eight-year old sister. The boy’s brain had been transformed to only know violence. He’d been freed from the war but had yet to be freed from his own mind. This story reminds us that children affected by conflict cannot walk out of their night in a day. Reintegration will not succeed without patience and determination. We need to offer them a continuum of care that will span childhood, adolescence, and youth, addressing their needs in terms of education, economic opportunities and psychosocial support. I have worked at this for the past decade through my foundation, the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), in South Sudan, Uganda, and other countries.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  6. “For Auma and so many former child soldiers, stigma dramatically aggravated the effects of a third invisible impact, trauma. Not all children involved in conflict will suffer from wounds and injuries – but all will suffer from inner scars, trapped in inner cages for which they have no key. During my time in Uganda, I met an aid worker from Denmark at a football match played by former child soldiers who had become refugees and students. The aid worker was sitting next to me and seemed like he was carrying a profound sadness. He told me he had started a program for some of the players, to return the child soldiers whose families were still alive back to their homes. The night before this game, he had placed the first boy back into his childhood home with his family.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  7. “Stigma is one of the most recurring issues in the discussions I have with the former child soldiers who join my organization, like Auma Susan. She is 24 today as Female Youth Counsellor of her town. A respected community leader, she teaches peace education in schools and mediates land disputes. But her childhood is a story of depravation and grief. Auma was abducted by the LRA on her way to school when she was seven. For three months, she was forced to cook, fetch water, and babysit. She was regularly beaten and could escape only after taking shrapnel in a leg. But her suffering was not over. For years, people rejected her and called her names – adding insult to injury. For years, before she could rebound and thrive, her whole life was defined by stigma.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  8. “Each of these violations is chilling, whether it is the killing and maiming of children; the recruitment or use of children as soldiers; sexual violence against children; abduction of children; attacks against schools or hospitals; or the denial of humanitarian access to children. These violations also have invisible impacts that last much longer than the violations themselves. I see at least three of them. First of all, these children lose months or years of education. Such gaps will turn into jeopardized careers and reduced opportunities. And, in many cases, their opportunities will be also limited because of a second invisible impact of the grave violations, social stigma. Their families and communities often refuse to take them back or care for them. Many will end up on the streets or join gangs.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source

  9. “I would like to personally thank Mrs. Kaljulaid, President of the Republic of Estonia and Chair of the Council. My recognition goes also to Mr. Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and his Special Representative, Mrs. Gamba, for their dedication in addressing the fates of children and adolescents affected by conflict. This is the second time that I have had the honour of addressing the Security Council on the issue and it is encouraging to observe that the momentum behind this issue has grown stronger. Indeed, lasting peace, which constitutes the core mission of this institution, is at stake when children are subject to the six grave violations that the Secretary-General detailed in his report.”

    2021-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/617 (2021) · source