The parents of Brima, also 12, and now at the Waterloo interim care centre, gave permission to the CDF to use him as a combatant in 1998. Brima said that when children disobeyed orders they were beaten unless their parents paid a fine. When a rebel is caught, Brima said, his arms are tied up behind his back. At the interim care centre in Lungi, former child combatants have been encouraged to make drawings of their experiences. Here former child combatants are given medical treatment, food and clothing, psycho-social rehabilitation, education and recreation.
Some older children have bullet wounds or other injuries.
Some still suffer the effects of narcotic drugs. During the first few weeks after being demobilised, former child combatants are reported to be often aggressive and violent, to suffer nightmares, alienation, outbursts of anger and an inability to interact socially. Efforts to reunite former child combatants with their families have had some success. But some, especially the younger ones, do not know their real names and have lost all knowledge of what a family is. Sometimes, when I was by myself, I would think about them.