According to the organization Human Rights Watch, as many as 300,000 children under age 18 serve in government forces or armed rebel groups. Some are as young as 8 years old. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
Beah brings his story to Vanderbilt University Monday, Feb. 18, in a lecture titled “A Long Way Gone: A Story of Redemption and Hope.”
His talk begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music. The Vanderbilt University Speakers Committee, a student-run organization, is sponsoring Beah’s talk.
General public tickets are available through Ticketmaster at 615-255-9600 or www.ticketmaster.com.General admission tickets are $10. Tickets are free to Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff and must be picked up in advance at the Sarratt Student Center box office. Only one free ticket may be picked up per person with Vanderbilt identification card. Tickets are $5 for non-Vanderbilt students with valid school or university identification – these tickets are available at the Sarratt Student Center box office and Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, call 615-322-2471 or visit www.vanderbilt.edu/vpb.
Beah, who was born in Sierra Leone, is one of the first child soldiers to tell his story in his own words. In his book A Long Way Gone – Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, he tells of having to flee attacking rebels at 12 years old and how he was recruited by the government army by age 13.
He was removed from fighting by UNICEF when he was 16. With rehabilitation Beah began to heal from his experiences and finished high school at the United Nations International School in New York.
In 2004, he graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, The Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and many other organizations on children affected by war.
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Media Contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
princine.lewis@vanderbilt.edu