Lost are found: child soldiers can reenter, thrive in former community.

Ishmael Beah knows that former child soldiers in war-ravaged African countries can reclaim their lives, because that's just what he did. In 1993, when Beah was 13, rebels in Sierra Leone killed his parents and two brothers, forcing him to join a bloody campaign for two years. Upon his release, he stayed at a rehabilitation center for six months with other formerly abducted children. Beah now lives in the United States, and in 2007 he published a book about his transition from child soldier to college graduate.

His inspiring story illustrates the resilience of children forced into committing unthinkable acts, especially if those children receive both treatment that blends with their cultures and acceptance back into their home communities.

A UNICEF report places the current number of soldiers under age 18 at about 300,000 from more than 30 countries. Such figures rely mainly on guesswork, Columbia University education scholar Neil Boothby says. "There are no reliable data on the number of child soldiers."

New studies challenge the popular view that children forced to commit war atrocities end up as "lost boys," incapable of ever leading constructive lives. "Declaring child soldiers to be 'lost boys' is simply unacceptable," Beah says.

Beah joined researchers who study former child soldiers May 5 in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

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"Emotional resilience is the norm," says psychologist Jeannie Annan of New York University, who studied former child soldiers in Uganda. "Family rejection and emotional distress are the exception."

Consider 40 boys abducted into a rebel army in the East African nation of Mozambique more than 20 years ago. By 2004, 37 of them had returned to their home communities and displayed good social and psychological functioning as adults, according to Boothby.

"These are wonderful young men," Boothby says. "They had done bad things in their home villages as child soldiers, but the villagers wanted them back."

Psychiatrist Jon Shaw of the University of Miami in Florida first contacted the boys in 1988. Government forces had freed the youngsters from the rebel group and the government endorsed an effort to rehabilitate them and return them to their families. Shaw converted a Catholic school into a rehabilitation center that offered group activities, including sports, art and music. Boys stayed there for six months before going home to rural villages, where they participated in cleansing rituals that allowed villagers to forgive the boys.

Children abducted to serve as child soldiers serve many roles, Shaw notes, such as porters, cooks, human shields, spotters, spies, minefield sweepers and participants in suicide missions. About one-third of child soldiers are girls, whom rebel leaders also use as sex slaves.

Boothby's team examined the young men's abilities to assist neighbors in times of need, a sign of maturity in Mozambique. He also evaluated their psychological adjustment.

All the boys had recurrent thoughts or memories of traumatic wartime events, even as adults. Over the course of the study, the number who avoided places or activities that reminded them of past atrocities increased from 15 to 26. Despite their disturbing memories, 37 boys grew up to own their own homes. Most married and had children.

In 2004, a majority of the former child soldiers cited examples of having helped neighbors in the past year. Interviews with those neighbors confirmed the reports.

Three former child soldiers did poorly after returning to their villages. One repeatedly got into trouble and died in a police shooting. Another was ostracized for alcoholism. A third struggled with emotional problems and an inability to relate to others. He had been abducted by rebels at age 6 after seeing his parents brutally murdered and his house burned down. "This was the worst case of trauma that I've ever seen," Shaw says.

Boothby plans to track the young men for at least another 10 years.

Ugandan communities have also welcomed back former child soldiers. From 2005 to 2007, NYU's Annan and her colleagues interviewed a random sample of 1,000 families in parts of Uganda that had been exposed to 20 years of conflict between government forces and a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army. About half of a group of 741 males, ages 14 to 30, and 619 females, ages 14 to 35, reported having been abducted by the LRA.

Participants often described trauma and depression symptoms that lasted for years after their release. Yet they had largely reintegrated themselves into civilian life. Almost all the boys and 80 percent of the girls were accepted by their families without problem after leaving the LRA.

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Family difficulties emerged for a minority who had spent many years as soldiers, blamed themselves for what had happened and felt haunted by spirits of those they had harmed or killed.

Psychological treatment for former child soldiers in Uganda shows promise as a way to ease lingering depression, says Judith Bass of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In a 2007 study, her team adapted a form of group therapy for use in Uganda. Trained, local counselors delivered this therapy to 105 teenagers in two camps for displaced persons. The youngsters had been abducted by rebels, had witnessed murders or had experienced other war-related traumas. Constant worrying, social withdrawal and other signs of depression substantially declined after four months of weekly therapy sessions.

Definitive treatment and outcome studies of former child soldiers have yet to be conducted, cautions psychiatrist Myron Belfer of Harvard Medical School in Boston. As Ishmael Beah emphasizes, recovery takes many years. "I couldn't sleep much as a child soldier, and I still don't sleep more than three or four hours a night," he says.

Back Story

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American Civil War 

Drummer boys saw as much fighting as soldiers.

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Germany, WW II

Children were recruited into the Hitler Youth Movement, serving as spies and soldiers.

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Vietnam

A 1968 photo shows a child ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) trooper in Tan Son Nhut.

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Colombia, present

Some 14,000 children, many of them girls, serve in combat for a decades-old civil war.

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Uganda, present

These children, photographed in 2003, left their villages to avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army.

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Myanmar, present

Children probably make up 45 percent of combatants as the army and resistance groups fight.