While attending a 2 day youth expert meeting in Abuja Nigeria to draft guidelines for the countries youth advisory panel, I stumbled on CNN’s Global Edition interview with Ishmael Bael whom I met some months ago!

I met Ishmael Bael last year October in New York during the United Nations Global Youth Leadership summit where I was the Nigerian delegate together with Hauwa Umar. I also had a peace building training at Pine Bush just before the summit where selected summit delegates were trained on peace building. At one of the experience sharing session, Ishmael brought tears into the faces of other participants and in fact the faculty when he shared his experience as a child soldier during the more than 10 year civil war that rocked Sierra Leone.
At 10, Ishmael returned home one day to find his town almost deserted, bullet holes piercing the walls of his home, his parents dead and his siblings no where to be found. He joined the throng of mostly women and children that fled the village and walked for days without food to reach the nearest refugee camp.

He was at the refugee camp for months until he was forcefully recruited to join a band of child soldiers. He transformed from orphan to refugee to child soldier before he became a teenager.

Now rehabilitated and living in New York, Ishmael decided to pen down his moving story and experience during the difficult phase of his life and the atrocities of the civil war rocking many African countries. The book, A Long Way Gone was launched at the United Nations in January and is already for sale at major bookstores nationwide.

Though I haven’t read the book, I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the difficulties and extreme harsh situations faced by young people and children during war situation and want to extend a hand of love to them or for anyone who is seeking broader knowledge, because as we know, learning never stops!