#ChildNotSoldier spotlights risk to young lives

SURVIVORS of street violence have painted a haunting mural of a child soldier on a London street as part of a new campaign to end violence against children around the world.

Four people, who have turned their lives around after spending time on the streets, wanted to highlight the damage that violence inflicts on children’s lives in London and abroad.

Their artwork known as #ChildNotSoldier, which was commissioned by charity World Vision, is now on display in Waterloo’s Leake Street graffiti tunnel. Official figures show that last year around 10,000 children were recruited into armies and militias globally, but the charity believes the true number may be in the hundreds of thousands.

A spokeswoman for World Vision said: “The disruption of war makes it impossible to count every child soldier, and most remain invisible.”

Omar Reid, 27, who helped create the mural, said: “The level of violence I faced growing up and on the streets still torments me today.

“Although I didn’t live through a war, I can relate to the brutality inflicted on child soldiers ... I want to help children around the world get their childhoods back before it is too late.” When Mr Reid was a teenager he was bullied and tried to kill himself. He became addicted to drugs, sex and violence and had been stabbed by the age of 17. That was when he turned his life around.

He said: “This opened my eyes to the reality of the culture I was involved with. At that moment, I realised that if I continued to pursue this lifestyle, I would not be here now telling my story, not only to help me, but also others.”

World Vision works with children recovering from extreme violence in dangerous countries. Their It Takes a World campaign calls on the Government to fund programmes to protect young people from violence.