The use of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo is no longer officially sanctioned by the government's military, however it is known that hundreds are still being 'recruited' particularly in North Kivu in the east of the country. Many of those 'recruited' are actually abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army and, in November 2008 alone, 154 children were reported to have been abducted by this group.

Some idea of the scale of the use of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo can be gleaned from the fact that from 2003-2006 some 30,000 children were released from various militia groups.

It is difficult for those in the west to fully comprehend the trauma of being a child soldier having to experience either killing or being killed during such a formative age, and the challenges of rehabilitating children back into the authority of a family when, just weeks or months earlier, they held a gun in their hand and could kill or maim anyone who stood in their way.

This video documentary shares the experiences of some young child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the work being undertaken with them to reintroduce themselves back into their families and communities.

Of course, many of these children, including girls, have no homes return to after the war claimed upward of five million lives. Without family or extended family, they are destined either to return to the fighting or become one of the country's increasing number of forgotten street children eking out an existence without a viable future on the streets of cities like Kinshasa.