Thousands have either been abducted to become child soldiers or have voluntarily take up arms to fight for a better future in a land where there often seems no future at all. As one twelve year old boy stated "I entered the 'army' by myself. Neither my mother nor father, or anyone else asked me to join. I saw the situation in which we were living -- it was very hard. I entered the army to deal with the aggression we were suffering in my territory."

Children in Chad know that it is unlikely that they will reach fifty years old and should they have children themselves nearly 10% will die at birth. Worse still, Chad is known as a source of child trafficking both internally ~ where they are used as domestic slaves, as beggars, as cattle herders or to help the fishermen ~ and also externally to countries such as Cameroon and the Central African Republic for similar tasks as well as sexual exploitation.