War is costly. In addition to the physical and emotional scars that organized violence causes, it drains precious resources. Money that could be spent on building young lives is instead wasted on destruction. During a recent border war, for example, Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on weapons, while 1 million Eritreans and 8 million Ethiopians faced famine. Costing more than 60,000 lives to date, the internal conflict in Sri Lanka has depressed the economy.
Every dollar spent on a warplane is one unavailable to be spent on children.
In the village of Ambanganga, there are no bombs or landmines. Yet children like Priyanthi's daughter and son are nonetheless deeply affected by the conflict as money is spent on warplanes, robbing them of clean water, adequate sanitation, vaccines, books and passable roads. In the combat area of Sri Lanka's Jaffna Peninsula, the cost of the war is far higher. Here children and their families are living under fire and older children have been taken as child soldiers. Like other war-torn areas, thousands of infants and children have been disabled, left homeless, orphaned or killed.