One of the founders of a Canadian organization dedicated to helping children in war zones wants to share their stories with Canadians, especially the country's kids.
Samantha Nutt, a doctor who, along with her husband Eric Hoskins, helped found War Child Canada in 1998, says she thinks about children in war-affected areas every time she takes her toddler to a park.
"I can take him to the park and not have to worry about him picking up a grenade or stepping on a landmine," she told Â鶹´«Ã½.
That's not something many children in the nearly 30 countries in the midst of war can do.
"I have come face to face with kids probably as young as eight who have never been to school, but who have fought and who have killed," she said.
Nutt says that although she grew up in the relative calm of Toronto, she was greatly affected by her upbringing in Brazil and South Africa, where she saw first-hand the effects of poverty on children.
When she volunteered to go to Somalia after becoming a doctor, she said she could no longer ignore the plight of children in war-ravaged countries.
"Once I had seen war and experienced it first hand, there was absolutely no way that I could go back to practicing medicine in the traditional sense," she said.
So, Nutt helped create War Child Canada, which recruits Canadian musicians such as David Usher, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Sum 41, to get its message out to Canadian youth.
The bands travel to countries affected by confict, and they let Canadian kids know the challenges facing less fortunate children around the world.
Nutt says that "if you look at who's been at the fore of most social movements for the better part of 50 years, it's been young people."
By raising money, War Child Canada now runs programs in a dozen countries. It directly offers a hand to 10,000 kids a year. In the Congo alone, the organization is helping to rebuild 20 schools.
With a report by CTV's John Vennavally-Rao
