The Salesians in Ciudad Don Bosco spend their lives saving them. "Ciudad Don Bosco was established 50 years ago in one of the highest areas of the city, in the Aures district, with more than half a dozen protection and prevention programmes for children and youth at-risk."
Alberto López of the Communication Department of the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid, has travelled to Medellin in Colombia to film a documentary on the work done by the Salesians with former child soldiers in armed groups, to find out what they want to do with their lives and what they think of the peace process.
According to guidelines of the so-called "Paris Principles" passed by the United Nations in 2007, a child soldier "is a person under 18 years of age linked to an armed force or armed group, including boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes."
The report of the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid aims to make people aware of this "open wound" that makes the people of Colombia suffer and weep. Albert Lopez says: "We are starting a few intense days of getting to know the testimonies, the conditions and the work of the Salesians for peace in Colombia. This is the start of a journey that will surprise us."
"When you get to places in really great need, with no running water, no electricity except for a few hours per day, with children who, if all goes well, eat once a day ... and see the joy and the optimism of the missionaries, you realize what is really important and what remains to be done, but most of all, you understand that there is no evil in the world that love cannot heal."
And on the subject of child soldiers he continues: "But what it really proves is that, despite all that has happened, these children have a big heart full of childhood dreams, goals that are within reach even if many of them have not yet been realized."
Children are the best thermometer of the peace process in the country.
