• Football competition arranged by Don Bosco Homes for former child soldiers.<br/>
  • Former Government child soldiers from Saniquellie line up preparing to disarm at a UN run DDRR Disarmament camp in Ganta northern Liberia.<br/>
  • Liberia is awash with small arms of all types many smuggled in from Ivory Coast or Guinea. Here soldiers line up to hand in their weapons at a UN camp in Ganta, northern Liberia.
  • It is estimated around 15,000 children were involved in fighting in the country\'s 14 year conflict.
  • A woman hands in explosives at a UN disarmament program in Ganta, Northern Liberia. Many women were forced to act as porters, cooks, fighters and sex slaves in Liberia\'s 14 year civil war. An estimated 40% of women experienced some form of sexual violence during the conflict.<br/>
  • Children line up after being disarmed. They were often on the front line after being drugged up and forced to fight. By 2005 over 11,000 boys & girls had gone through the disarmament program. <br/><br/>
  • Former child soldiers at a Don Bosco Homes in Tubmanburg perform a play about their experiences. This helps them overcome their trauma and helps reintegrate them back into their families.<br/>
  • Former Child Soldiers in an Interim Care Centre ICC in Tubmanburg, former base of the LURD rebel group sing and perform a play about their experiences.<br/>
  • Former child soldiers at the 11th Street ICC in Monrovia Liberia run by Don Bosco Homes put on a singing show for guests.<br/><br/><br/>
  • Liberian star and World Footballer of the Year George Weah meets the former child soldiers before the game. A hero in any young Liberian boys eyes his presence proved to be a massive moral boost.<br/>
  • The Walker Stadium in the capital Monrovia proved to be a dramatic location surrounded by the burnt out buildings destroyed during the war. <br/><br/>
  • Despite the rocky ground and searing heat the games were skillful and energetic. Football plays a key role in rehabilitation because it helps alleviate depression and teaches them valuable team skills.
  • Over a thousand spectators of street hawkers, businessmen and taxi drivers cheer on the footballers.
  • Football is used as a therepy and has allowed the boys to have fun and regain some of the childhood that was so brutally taken away from them.
  • An exhausted but happy footballer after the competition which hoped to have a unifying effect on the children.
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