The voices of the invisible girls : reintegration of former female child soldiers in Burundi

2013

Master thesis in development management - University of Agder 2013 Child soldiers are used in armed groups and forces around the word. Children as young as seven years of age have been reported to actively participate in armed conflict. The phenomenon of child soldiering has become increasingly recognized in recent decades. Females constitute between ten per cent to one third of the fighting forces worldwide. Despite this, girls and women have until recently been highly invisible in both research and intervention programs. Former female child soldiers often experience social exclusion through rejection, marginalization and stigmatization when returning to civilian life, often due to the tra…