ALMERIA (Source & photo: El Pais) We like good news here, so we're telling you about Hawa Sesay, 18, and Mariama Finda Ngegba, 20, from Sierra Leone. They were taken away as 'girl soldiers' aged nine with their families by rebel soldiers in a civil war that is happening since 1991 in one of the world's poorest countries. Aside from being taught to shoot and kill, they were trained to spy and made to do 'women's work' that included becoming sex slaves. One of them was forced to marry a rebel commander. It is years now since they handled a gun but the wounds are still open. However, the Spanish NGO (non-governmental organization) Todos son inocentes (They're all innocent), which fights against child slavery, has cooperated with the University of Almeria and the Cooperation Agency of Andalucia to obtain a scholarship for Hawa and Mariama. They will be studying health related subjects and hope to become nurses in three years ' time, when they intend to return to Sierra Leone to wage war against female genital mutilation, a widespread custom in that country. May their war be a different one this time.
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