Human Trafficking Awareness Week began Monday with the screening of “Children of War,” an independent film focusing on the lives of surviving child soldiers, and will continue Thursday night with speaker George Latio.

The film was shot over a three year period in a war zone in northern Uganda, according to the official website.

The movie focused on the lives of former child soldiers who are trying to work through the trauma of their childhood imprisonment by war criminal Joseph Kony, who was directly responsible for the kidnapping and enslavement of the children through the Lord’s Resistance Army, a quasi-religious militia.

Third-world countries are experiencing growing outbreaks of abductions and enslavements of children, forcing them away from their families and into the role of soldier. According to www.warchild.org, there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today. Not only do rebel groups use child soldiers to fight the government and other rebel groups, but the government also uses child soldiers to fight against the rebel resistance. The children have protection from no one.

George Latio was a child soldier. Born after the first Sudanese civil war and forced to join the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army at the age of 14, Latio arrived in the United States in 2003 and received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Bluffton University.

Latio is now a graduate student at Ohio University and is working on acquiring a master’s degree in communication and development while studying the use of media to resolve conflict, according to http://www.creducation.org/.

Latio has been involved in many presentations and conferences about the use of child soldiers, from sitting on a panel at the Third International Conference on Conflict Resolution Education at Cuyahoga Community College to helping members of the U.S. Institute of Peace spread the word.

Latio will be coming to Ashland University Thursday to speak about child soldiers and his personal experiences at 6 p.m. in the Alumni Room in Upper Convo. Several students said they think it is a good opportunity to explore topics many people don’t know about.

“It’s important to have these kinds of opportunities to see what really happens in our world,” senior Dave Immel said. “We can’t all go see it firsthand. That’s why Human Trafficking Awareness Week is so important.”

Freshman Shelby Persinger agreed.

“I think it’s good that they are bringing awareness,” Persinger said. “Obviously it is a serious matter that I knew nothing about and I’m sure tons of other people here know nothing about.”

The Ashland Center for Nonviolence encourages students to attend this event, in hopes that it helps educate those who don’t know about child soldiers and the obstacles they face.