#physical effects

I’ve beensitting on this one for a while. Partly because I don’t yet have any goodsources particularly on child soldiers, so I’m looking this up as I go.

 You’veprobably come across this already but it’s worth repeating: in the Congo, CARand Uganda child soldiers have a reputation for being more vicious and cruelthan the adults around them. I suspect that’s to do with them being brought upin an environment that encourages and rewards them for it. They are likely to witness and take part in torturewith all the consequences that entails.

 I haven’tyet found anything specifically onphysical effects so this is what I’mdeducing from accounts around the world of what these children are actuallyused for.

 The firstgroup of physical effects are the ones I’ve said I won’t cover- injuriesrelated to child sex abuse and early pregnancy. For that you’re on your own.

 There’salso the rather obvious category of conflict injuries. You should be able tofind analogous information by looking up violent robberies, land mines and soon.

 Beyondthat I think the best approach is probably going to be looking at what usingchild soldiers actually is: forced labour in a dangerous environment.

 You’llhave to take care looking at some of the physical effects of child labour:exposure to pesticides for instance probably won’t be an issue. But somethinglike mining or domestic service is probably a good fit for the kind of physicaleffects child soldiers would experience. They’re working long hours with heavyequipment.

 Theconsequences I’m seeing across multiple sources are growth deficiency, respiratory disease, and malnutrition. It’sworth noting that those effects would all exacerbate each other.

 Additionallydamage to the skeleton, caused by repeated heavy work while the child is stillgrowing, and hearing loss, seem to come up again and again.

 Moregenerally child labourers seem more prone to accidents and injury in theworkplace. This appears to be caused by a combination of ill-fitting equipment and lackof experience or training. Both of these factors hold true for childsoldiers. And given what the equipment is,lethal or crippling injuries seem incredibly likely.

 Anotherfactor to bring in at this point is armydiscipline.

 Childrenare rubbish soldiers. And that meansthat they get punished more often in an army-like setting.

 Beatingsand verbal abuse are common. Whipping is another punishment that crops up againand again. The stress positions that were used by European armies from the1700s are also sometimes used. So are punishments traditional to the area:falaka in the Middle East, pepper in West Africa and India etc.

 Some ofthese would have lasting physical effects on an adult.

 Long termI think the physical problems (as a result of punishment) to keep in mind arebroken/fractured bones that weren’t properly treated or set. It’s also worthkeeping in mind that there’s some evidence that head injuries increase thechance of PTSD in torture victims. So if your character was regularly cuffedround the ear for ‘mistakes’ while in such a traumatic and stressful environmentthey might have developed PTSD.

 So, tosummarise:

 Yourcharacters will probably have stuntedgrowth to some degree.

 Theymight have problems caused by poorskeletal development and joint pain/problems.

 They’relikely to have some lingering effectsfrom childhood malnutrition.

 They willprobably have some hearing loss if theywere near a front line.

 Dependingon the setting and time period they mighthave lingering problems from chemical exposure. That doesn’t have to befrom chemical attacks but might be from use of chemicals/explosives around thecamp.

 They mayalso have problems caused by beatingsand whippings as punishments in an army setting.

 It’sworth noting that they will have beenpunished more than normal because children often can’t physically keep up withthe demand an army lifestyle would place on them. They physically need moresleep, so they fall asleep on guard duty, they struggle to wake up, theyquickly show signs of sleep deprivation.

 Lookingthrough old sources a moralistic ‘we are exposing children to VICE’ argument seemsto have been crucial in banning child labour. While that holds true for childsoldiers as well you might want to support other arguments by having adultsoldiers stress that the child soldiers just weren’t as physically capable ofdoing a good job. That they fell asleep on watch, struggled to use equipmentproperly etc.  

 This old article brieflymentions muscular effects on child-workers.

 Thisone however is more up to date and more useful.

 Asis this short publication particularly on child labour in the US.

 Hopefullythat should give you at least somewhere to start. You might also want to lookup what the WHO and UNICEF have to say about the effects of childhoodmalnutrition.

Oh and you might also want to look up Aki Ra because he’s awesome and a former child soldier.

Her Eyes were BURNED by this UFO

In 1964, during the same period as the famous Socorro Incident, a disturbing UFO encounter in New Mexico left a a girl with her eyes burned by a UFO. This lesser-known case demonstrates the potential physical effects of close UFO encounters and raises serious questions about the nature of these mysterious craft.