Injured Iranian child soldiers are held in an Iraqi prison camp in 1983.

Washington -- U.S. programs are tackling the problems faced by many of the millions of children around the world who are exploited as laborers. Among the most unfortunate are children pressed into service as soldiers.

The U.N. International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 218 million child laborers worldwide. Of these, some 300,000 are child soldiers, according to UNICEF.

Child soldiering has been designated as one of the “worst forms” of child labor by the United Nations in the ILO International Convention 182, which was adopted in 1999 and ratified by 163 nations, including the United States. U.S. efforts to protect and aid these children have been vigorous and consistent, and many agencies are involved in the effort.

The U.S. Department of Labor, for example, has spent $595 million since 1995 to help victims of child labor abuse. These programs, according to department estimates, have touched the lives of at least 1 million children.

In 2003, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao held a conference on child soldiers titled “Children Caught in the Crossfire.” During the conference, she announced initiatives for on-the-ground services. Prior to this, the Department of Labor had funded research to look at the issue.

At the time of the conference, Chao said: “There are two faces of the child soldier issue -- the face of despair, and the face of redemption. ... We can’t give child soldiers their childhood back, but we can help them to rebuild their lives.”

To this end, the department launched a $13 million global initiative to help educate, rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers. The initiative included a $7 million project funded through the ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor to develop comprehensive strategies to help former child soldiers in Africa, where most current and former child soldiers live.

The Department of Labor currently funds more than 19 projects to educate children and protect them from exploitation in countries recovering from armed conflict. In fiscal year 2007, the department funded two new projects that target war-affected children -- including child soldiers -- in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Labor-funded project in Uganda -- by promoting awareness campaigns and by providing increased access to educational opportunities -- is expected to help save more than 11,000 children from the worst forms of child labor. The project will reach an additional 14,725 indirect beneficiaries, who will attend target schools or join households that benefit from activities designed to enhance livelihood opportunities.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, some 12,000 youths will be aided by programs designed to prevent them from being exploited in a country still recovering from decades of conflict.

CHILD SOLDIERING AND TRAFFICKING

At the U.S. Department of State, child soldiering is considered to be “a unique and severe manifestation of trafficking in persons that involves the unlawful recruitment of children through force, fraud or coercion ….”

The Presidential Initiative on Trafficking in Persons has provided $2.5 million for post-conflict projects. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been the biggest source of funds for projects working with child soldiers, providing $1,875,000 for fiscal years 2003 through 2006.

Because programs to help child soldiers are scattered through so many U.S. government departments and agencies, the State Department has taken the lead in serving as coordinator and information clearinghouse. In 2007, it launched a “Children in War” Web site, available to government personnel only, which collects information from a wide array of sources to serve as a resource tool for future programs.

Tu Dang, the foreign affairs officer who manages that Web site at the State Department’s Office of International Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told America.gov that the site covers a number of broader issues as well, such as vulnerable children and orphans.

“There’s a real need for coordination and information sharing,” she said. “It’s difficult, because there isn’t enough consistent information out there.”

Additional information on the worst forms of child labor and the Children in the Crossfire 2003 International Conference is available on the Labor Department Web site.

The full text of the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report is available on the State Department Web site.