Ex-child soldier fought Sierra Leone's war against Ebola
November 11, 2015
Prince Tommy Williams was kidnapped by Sierra Leonean rebels when he was 15[/caption]
Prince Tommy Williams, who used to be a child soldier in Sierra Leone, was one of hundreds of volunteers who helped fight the spread of Ebola.
Last weekend, the country was declared free of the virus that killed almost 4,000 people in the country over the past 18 months. He told the BBC’s Richard Hamilton about his experiences in the civil war, which ended in 2002, and his Ebola work: I had a normal family life before the war started in 1991. But at 15 I was kidnapped by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and taken to the jungle where I was trained on how to use a gun and initiated into the group. I thought it was the end of my life. It was like living in a different world, not like living on earth. They used a blade to cut the letters RUF into my chest, so if I was thinking about escaping I knew that I could be killed if I got caught by militia who supported the government. The rebels also threatened to cut off my legs or arms if I tried to flee, and I saw this happen to other people. Sometimes they would even take out the heart from someone’s chest and cook it up with onions and ask people to eat it. It seems like a nightmare now.‘Forced to kill’
I remember when we used to look for food and demanded that people hand it over. If they said: “We don’t have food”, we told them they were lying, and then we beat them even if they could have been telling the truth. [caption id="attachment_22283" align="alignright" width="300"]
‘Common enemy’
I lived alone, but teamed up with some guys doing things like pick-pocketing and I was caught. Fortunately [while in jail] I met a preacher called Richard Cole, who was the founder of a project called Lifeline Nehemiah which aimed to give hope, and a home, to people like me who felt they had lost hope. He encouraged me saying: “You used to cause atrocities, but you can be used to contribute to rebuild the nation.” At the home he encouraged me to continue with my schooling, he also told me that guys like me would be leaders of the nation and help to rebuild it. Richard taught me that it was God who was taking me through all these troubling times, and I also learnt that it was important to give back what was invested in me. He passed away in 2006 but we had that vision and continue with it. When the Ebola crisis came to Sierra Leone in 2014 we considered it to be a common enemy. [caption id="attachment_22284" align="alignleft" width="300"]
‘Scary’
People were frightened. Sometimes when we visited people refused to accept us but as we kept coming back we became familiar to them. It was scary and some people said it was witchcraft, but we persuaded them that there were principles to observe to protect themselves. [caption id="attachment_22285" align="alignright" width="300"]
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