Rosana Schaack

As Liberia recovers from nearly 15 years of conflict, the country’s boy soldiers have received global attention. Too often neglected, however, are the challenges of rehabilitating Liberia’s thousands of girl soldiers, who were forced to become fighters, sex slaves, or militants’ “wives.”

Rosana Schaack met one girl soldier who had been taken when she was seven and a half years old, and made a servant for a general.  At age nine, the girl had been given her first weapon.  As Rosana describes, “She fought in our war for 13 of the 14 years...from age seven and a half to almost 22.”