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It helped me to understand a bit of his backstory, as well as the sort of things that he, and others like him, had to go through after facing such atrocities. It also shows that even though one may have went through terrible times, there is still an opportunity to turn it around, and do something positive with all of the negativity.

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This activity helped me understand the impact the civil war had on it's civilians.

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It helped me to see more in detail what was going on around him, to help understand his perspective better.

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The document that we read, helped us better understand how this outbreak started and how it ended. Not excusing the RUF who committed the crimes, but helps to view their standpoint in the situation. The ending, seemed to be only be a brief summary of a long, difficult process.

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The blood diamonds helped me better understand Ishmael's story, because it shows the reader what one of the causes behind the war in Sierra Leone was which ultimately lead him to become a child soldier.

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Today's activity helped me to understand the horrors the child soldiers had to experience. They had no choice as to whether they wanted to be a slave or not, and many of the female soldiers were succome to sexual violence. Today's activity really helped to put into perspective for me, the struggles a child soldier endures daily. To think that we live in a world where struggle consists of getting to school late, or not hanging out with friends really shows how terrible of an experience it is to be a child soldier.

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It gave insights into other things that other child soldiers had to go through as well, like how girls and boys were sexually assaulted by others, yet they could not do anything about it. The activity showed again how much the soldiers had to go through at extremely young ages, when they should be able to have fun and enjoy themselves.

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How ignored children like him and others were and how disrespected even after going through trauma they will have to endure their whole life. How we should remember every single kind of person that went through this and that their stories matter.

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It helped me better understand the war and why it was taking place. Before, I thought that the government was not corrupt at all until I realized that they would not let the people's voices be heard. It also makes me realize even more than before how much the RUF tortured the child soldiers. (By forcing them to commit murder so that they can't go back to the life they used to live).

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The information I learned about human rights in Sierra Lone helped me further understand what preexisting conditions led to the revolution and the actions of the RUF, and also what the ultimate result/resolution of this was. This helped me further understand what happened after Ishmael's story and the big picture of how these events had an ultimate effect on the status of Sierra Leone.

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It helped me understand some of the full repercussions of the war and just how big of a deal it was

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It helped me understand how blood diamonds were the fuel for the civil war in Sierra Leone. The millions and millions of dollars in yearly income from blood diamonds allowed the Revolutionary United Front to buy weapons and ammunition for the rebel soldiers. This allowed the massacre of innocent people, and forced Ishmael to become a child soldier.

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That even when all of this was going on people would still smuggle diamonds and get richer everyday but and if the rebel were so bent on increasing the size of their army why did they not do something similar instead of terrorizing these people and causing massacres

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It gave me a better understanding into what the children were going through at the time. Also the number of people that were killed helped me understand the impact of the war.

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It helped me understand just how cruelly he and many others were treated in Sierra Leone during the war. It really made everything seem so much more real, and it was scary to see the massive amount of casualties, and affected lives.

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It helped me understand the traumatizing events that the often young children went through during this time.