Will You Listen, the companion to a UN report on the impact of armed conflict on children, is a compilation of the views of over 1,700 children and young people in more than 92 countries. Their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas were collected through focus group discussions and questionnaires and reflect what young people living in humanitarian crises have experienced.

Here’s what the young people living in conflict zones have to say about losing their homes and loved ones and missing out on their education..

We lose our homes and those we love

The war had a very negative effect on our life. I lost my father during the fighting and we were displaced. My father was the supporter of our family and after losing him we felt we had lost everything. I could not go to school after that and my education is still incomplete.

– Girl, 14, Afghanistan

In Somalia, we now have ‘seafarers’ who offer us the false promise of a better life, when we pay them to take us across to Yemen. Many of our friends, brothers and sisters do not survive these trips, as they often ordered to swim the last part of the journey.

– Age and sex not specified, Somalia

We live in a huge prison, deprived of the least simple rights that any individual should have.

— Young woman, 17, Occupied Palestinian Territory

We miss out on school

This is a year of ignorance.

– Young woman, 16, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Often during armed conflicts, schools and other education institutions are closed for one reason or another. This has a negative impact on children and young people’s state of mind.

– Girls and young women, 13–20, Iraq

I cannot sit exams as my close relatives died in the shelling. I am too restless to sit in exams. When I read the papers about other shelling it comes back to me and I cannot think about anything else.

– Young man, 17, Sri Lanka

We struggle to survive

Children have lots of problems, for example we have health problems. There are very few clinics and health centres here and we have very limited access to them.

– Boy, 14, Afghanistan

After my parents were killed my brother took responsibility. He is a labourer and earns every day only 200 or 300 Afs which is very little for a large family. I also work with him.

– Boy, 13, Afghanistan

We can be a force for peace

I believe that a change can occur. War can be stopped.

– Young woman, 15, Pakistan

Will You Listen, the companion to a United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children, is a compilation of the views of over 1,700 children and young people in more than 92 countries. Their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas were collected through focus group discussions and questionnaires and reflect what young people living in humanitarian crises have experienced.

Here’s what the young people living in conflict zones have to say about living with violence and sexual exploitation.

We live in violence

We were mobilized by our clan militia heads to come to the playground. All of us were young people about the same age. They told us to defend our village. We were in the queue with our guns. When the Marehan clan attacked us we defended our village.

- Boys and young men, 14–17, Somalia

People are drunk and fighting. Everything is different than home. My father hits my mother and drunken people destroy light bulbs and buildings.

- Girl, 14, Sri Lanka, internally displaced persons (IDP) transit centre

After I was taken to the front, they give me blood to drink which they said was the first test, and will make me more and more brave.

-Young man, age not specified, Liberia

There are many of us who do not have jobs or anything. Some people in my family still fear me because they still believe I have the ‘bush trick’ in me; we get the evil eye and are discriminated against. There is nowhere to go. This is my home and my country too. I can’t go anywhere if I run to Guinea. I know no one there. I would still have to struggle. At least here I can manage…

– Young man, 22, Sierra Leone

We face rape and exploitation

The attackers tied me up and raped me because I was fighting. About five of them did he same thing to me until one of their commanders who knew my father came and stopped them, but also took me to his house to make me his wife. I just accepted him because of fear and don’t want to say no because he might do the same thing to me too.

– Girl, 14, Liberia

My sister is only 15 years old but every night she goes out to have sex with humanitarian workers and peacekeepers for money. I tried to stop her before but I have given up since I do not have anything to give her. We all rely on the money she gets to support the family.

– Young man, 17, Liberia

As boys under 18 in prison are poor, adult men give them money in exchange for sex.

– Young man, 20, Burundi

We lose our childhoods

I hate nights because they scare me. I ask my mother to let me sleep in her room during the attacks.

– Boy, 10, Occupied Palestinian Territory

While I was playing football with friends, I heard an explosion, I rushed to the place where the explosion happened and I saw Hassan, our 14-year old neighbour who was dead. We collected his scattered body. I could not sleep for nights; I used to dream of people drenched in blood.

– Boy, 13, Somalia

We know you are trying to help us

NGO/UN have been working in our areas, supporting us. They are all leaving too soon, and this is making everything worse.

– Young woman, 18, Sri Lanka

We have a role to play

We could express our concerns and raise voices, but chances are very limited due to cultural barriers. Adults are seen as the key decision makers at all times.

– Age and sex not specified, Somalia

We the children should raise our voices so more people listen to us. Some kids like me have the passion, but we just don’t know how to do it.

– Boy, 14, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

A prolonged drought has crippled agriculture production in rural Kenya, greatly affecting millions of families who rely on farming, fishing or herding. As in rural communities elsewhere in Africa, when disasters and hardships hit, young people are often the most susceptible to problems.

The entire Horn of Africa has been prone to dry periods over the previous decades, but this spell, which some blame on a variety of environmental issues, is particularly harsh. An estimated 100,000 cattle have died in Kenya due to lack of water, and Kenya’s government estimates 10 million people face food shortages. Malnuitrution is a worry as are diseases stemming from dirty drinking water.

From Gorta, the Ireland-based Hunger organization, here is a short video discussing how one family is adapting to the conditions in the Rift Valley, one of the most effected regions.

Drought in Kenya – one family´s perseverence from Gorta TV on Vimeo.

Leaving home

The drought has forced herders to leave their homes in search of water and food for their animals. “In most cases this means vulnerable women, children and the elderly are left behind to fend for themselves in the villages,” writes Ebby Nanzala Wamatsi for the blog Women News Network. Young people can be left to tend the dry fields, but if random rains arrive, they can create the vicious cycle of providing water, but may also wash out crops, warns the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper.

Threat of violence

Problems also arise if entire families pull up stakes. With so many people leaving their traditional hunting and feeding grounds can create conflict as pastoralists venture into territories traditionally used by other groups, heightening tensions. Poaching, cattle rustling and banditry are on the rise, worrying people as attackers use ever-sophisticated weapons. An estimated 400 people died in 2009 due to violence, reported the blog Kenya Watch.

A particularly horrific massacre took place in September at a village named Kanampiu in the Rift Valley when 35 locals, including women and children, were slain by marauders.

Photograph posted on Flickr by Mara1

Educational issues

Out-migration of the area also forces children out of schools, making it difficult for them to return. Education level is an important barometer for future income earning. For children attending schools in the Rift Valley, in the northern part of Kenya, a local doesn’t hold out much hope. “Many children, more than 1,000 from the Baragoi area [in Samburu] have moved with their parents and they will not be going back to school soon,” said Joseph Leparua of the Samburu Community Development Support to an IRIN News reporter.

To make matters worse, the school canteen is sometimes the only place where children are guaranteed a meal, according to a CBBC story.

Rebuilding communities

Outside of the food security and personal safety issues brought on by the drought, young people also have to worry about rebuilding their communities. Faith Akiru, a woman who works in Kenya with the US-based development group Catholic Relief Services (CRS), grew up amongst the pastoralist Turkanas in a village of 1,000 in northwestern Kenya. She speaks, on the website of the CRS, of how the drought has affected her village.

Because of Kenya’s long drought, animals can no longer support our daily needs, leaving my family and other Turkana villagers extremely vulnerable. We suffered drought when I was growing up, and I remember going hungry for several days. We’d go to the river to pick wild fruits and plants. These plants have a very bitter taste, so we’d camp there to boil them until the bitterness left. About once a year, we would also receive relief food.

Now drought is harder to survive because livestock raiding is increasing. People are using guns for raiding, making it harder to protect our herds. My family isn’t doing so good. I send them money, but even if they can use it to get food, all the people around them are hungry. It’s a bit uncomfortable for them to eat when all of the others around them are hungry, and I can’t send enough to feed everyone.

She points out that as an educated woman earning an income, she feels a duty to give back to her community by helping younger girls cope with the intricacies of modern life.

I have a lot of responsibility. There is a lot for me to do back in my village. Five girls from Morulem have graduated from eighth grade and gone on to high school. I’m the only one who managed to finish, and I’m now the only girl with a college degree in the village.

I feel I’m a role model. I need to have a good job so when I go back to my village they can see how my education has changed my life. I talk to the young girls in Morulem about the importance of education and help them learn about different careers. And I tell them that just like any other human being, they can go to school and live a better life than they are now. Part of my responsibility is to also fight against early and forced marriages that lead many girls to become young mothers of children they can’t support.

This post was originally posted at Global Voices on January 13, 2009.