⇔

Weeks for President

Lost Innocents had the pleasure of spending the afternoon yesterday with an extraordinary gentleman named Kimmie Weeks. Kimmie was nine years old when the Liberian civil war reached him. He talked about his family’s displacement and the hunger and disease that they were subject to. Emaciated, jaundiced and cholera-stricken, Kimmie was placed in a pile of dead bodies at his IDP camp and left for dead. But he survived, and made a promise that if he made it out of that camp, he would dedicate his life to child rights advocacy. He believed that no child should know the kinds of suffering that war brought to his country. With the courage and innocence of a young boy, he initiated a children’s disarmament campaign in Liberia, meeting with various warlords including Charles Taylor about the issue of child soldiers. It was a children’s plea for their fellow peers. These efforts were effective, but after Taylor became president and Kimmie began to investigate Taylor’s training of child soldiers, his life was in jeopardy, and Kimmie had to flee the country.

Understanding the realities of war, and the challenges that remain long after conflicts are over, he continues his activism today with his organization Youth Action International trying to promote local, sustainable, grassroots initiatives empowering young people in post-conflict areas. In nine years, he hopes to run for President of Liberia. We wish him well.

Filed by Sangu at February 13th, 2008 under demobilization, Rehabilitation, Liberia