Michel Chikwanine lived a very brutal life. He was born in a family with six children in the city of Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Great War of Africa. At the age of five years old he was abducted and forced to become a child soldier for the rebel side, they hit him with a gun and cut his wrists and filled them with a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder, they even made him kill his best friend, Kevin. He found a way to escape by running away into a jungle for 3 days and nights. He was later kidnapped again in 1988, when the civil war broke out in the Congo. He disappeared for seven months before escaping and seeking refuge in Uganda. At the age of 10, he had a gun pointed at his head and if he dared to close his eyes he would get shot, he had to witness his mother and two older sister getting raped. In 2004, luck began to come to his family, Michel, his mother and younger sisters arrived in Ottawa to start a new life. He worked with many activists like the Kielburger brothers, Robert F, Kennedy and former U.S vice president Al Gore.
Michel Chikwanine
we are silent for the 300,000 child soldiers and the 250 million child labourers."