Many of them suffer from deep depression, refusing to play, to go to school or even to get out of bed in the morning. They spend their days doing nothing. Over a period of five years, the boys marched thousands of kilometers across Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. They have witnessed the worst atrocities, and have seen their friends die of starvation. Some drowned during their long exodus, and some were eaten by lions.
Art is used as part of their therapy.
First, the boys are asked to draw an animal or other ordinary objects. Gradually, they draw more personal things - their village, their family, what they have been through. Through art, they express the helplessness and horror they cannot put into words as an adult would. Other unaccompanied minors include children who are purposely sent abroad while their parents stay behind. These would include the Vietnamese boat children who turned up in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere in South East Asia in the 1980s.