Books
Faith McDonnell and Grace Akallo, Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children.
In northern Uganda, thousands of children have been kidnapped by rebel armies and pressed into murderous service. Here, Akallo, who was herself kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army at age 15, offers a disturbing, deeply personal account of being forced to march with the rebel army, fight, and raid villages for food and water. Akallo is joined by co-author McDonnell, who works for the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
In between Akallo’s gripping autobiographical passages, McDonnell interweaves informative chapters recounting the history of strife in Uganda, and explaining the political-religious vision of Joseph Kony, head of the LRA. McConnell includes snippets from a Human Rights Watch report about abducted children, who were forced, among other things, to kill other children. The authors believe that God is protecting the children of Uganda, sometimes working miraculous intervention to protect them—but they also spotlight activist groups, such as the Uganda Conflict Action Network, who are doing their part to make a difference in the lives of child soldiers.
“GIRL SOLDIER is a heartrending story of atrocities that rarely make the US newspapers or other mass media.” -amazon customer review, Robert Kellemen.
Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Alephonsion, Benjamin Ajak, and Judy Bernstein, They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The true story of three lost boys from Sudan.
Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
A gripping story of a child’s journey through hell and back. There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words. In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.
Victor Malarek, The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade
Award-winning Canadian journalist Malarek reports on the most recent wave in the global sex trade, sparked by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Natashas exposes the global phenomenon of sexual trafficking, a form of twenty-first century slavery and a multibillion-dollar industry whose scope has until now remained largely unknown. As Victor Malarek reveals, this sinister trade thrives because of a global pattern of institutional corruption. His investigation implicates everyone from immigration officials to police officers and international peacekeepers; the resulting book is a startling and unforgetable call to action.
Jackson Katz, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help
“These pages will empower both men and women to end the scourge of male violence and abuse. Katz knows how to cut to the core of the issues, demonstrating undeniably that stopping the degredation of women should be every man’s priority.” -Lundy Bancroft, Author of Why Does he Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men
