As of 2020 there have been a reported 14 countries recruiting and using child soldiers. This number was updated from 11 after Cameroon, Libya, and Nigeria were added to the list in 2020. Child soldier usage has not declined and has reached epidemic levels. In 2017, there were over 100,000 children who were forced to become soldiers. Most of these children come home with major injuries and long-term mental problems such as depression and PTSD. The children who haven’t been used as child soldiers still suffer the effects of the constant violence around them because warfare has left an estimated 12 million children homeless in the last decade. 

   These numbers are bound to rise higher. The goal is to stop these numbers from rising. Another goal is to help kids recover from any kind of trauma they suffered from war/conflict. Building schools in the US usually costs $20 million, but right now there is no reported number for how much a school would cost internationally. The goal is to build schools in Africa to help the approximate 30 million children that are out of school. There are 14 countries that would be the main focus. These countries are  Afghanistan, Colombia, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. 

   It takes not even a few minutes to sign and share this petition. Help children around the world be safe from this horrible epidemic. Spreading awareness is most important when it comes to topics like this because a lot of people don’t know things like this are going on.