Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah is one of the most courageous people there is in the world. He has worked from a devastating past to being an American citizen attending college. In 1991, a civil war overtook the country of Sierra Leone. Horrible things happened. Children and women killed, Kids left without family leaving them only with 2 choices: Death or Fighting. They thought they could run away and hide but the war eventually caught up with them. Ishmael Beah was one of those kids, an eyewitness of the war.

At the age of 11 he and his friends were walking to Mattru Jong in the Boetha District of Sierra Leone. There was a Talent show in Mattru Jong where he and his friends were going to perform a dance. A couple years earlier he and his friends were exposed to American hip-hop and were intrigued by the sound of it so they formed a dance group and danced to the music.

When they got to Mattru Jong Ishmael decided and his brother would stay at their Grandparents' house and the friends would stay at their relatives' house. One day a warning came that the rebels were coming to Mattru Jong so they all hid. But the Rebels didn't come so they went back into the city. A couple days later Ishmael and his brother heard a shot at noon and they thought it was just a soldier practicing shooting. But no, what was coming was much, much worse!

Everybody ran in every way, once the bullets started flying. But the only way to escape was the river bottom. Ishmael and his friends ran to the river bottom and while they were running the rebels started emptying their AK-47s into the area, killing many people. Then they heard a WHOOSH overhead and they ducked. Only 20 feet in front of them a missile landed and the heat blew them back. A rebel was firing an RPG into the river bottom. They quickly ran to the forest and hid and before they knew it fell asleep. They waited a couple days and decided to go back to Mattru Jong because they had no food. They went there at night and sneaked around to get to their grandparents' home and they found everything stolen, other than a sack of money and rice Ishmael hid under a mattress. They grouped up with someone they found also scavenging. They were walking across the river bottom when the person they found dropped their frying pan on accident. The rebels heard it and took aim. They ran as hard and far as they could when they found a path they followed it and saw what appeared to be an abandoned village.

They walked in and looked for food but then the rebels came out and caught them the rebels would've killed them if they weren't low on soldiers. They took them and chose the strongest out of the group. And lined up the weak ones at the river, Ishmael was one of the weak ones. Then they took the strong ones and gave them guns and lined them up behind the weak ones Ishmael's brother took his gun and got behind Ishmael. The Rebel said "Now kill the person in front of you it will be your initiation!" they raised there guns. Then shots started firing in the distance "Are they rebels?" one of them questioned "No it can't be," another one said. "Send out a scouting party!" one of the leaders suggested so they sent out a scouting party not soon after more shots but they kept on coming closer. Soon all hell broke loose the rebels started shooting back. Ishmael escaped from the horror but got separated from his friends and his brothers. For the next couple weeks he just walked from town to town. Until he met up with some other kids from Mattru Jong, who he walked with until they came up on a banana farmer that Ishmael knew. The banana farmer told Ishmael his family was in a village nearby he took them down to the city about a mile away from the city they heard shots so they ran to a ridge nearby that overlooked the city and sure enough the rebels had hit. Supposedly no one survived. Ishmael and his friends started walking again until they came upon a platoon of soldiers who took them in and made them ruthless killing machines with three ingredients: Rambo movies, Drugs, and hatred. Ishmael became a successful sergeant but was then taken by UNICEF an organization dedicated to helping traumatized children. For the first week there were many fights between the Soldiers and Rebels that were taken in by UNICEF but as time went on the fights started dying down. One day Ishmael's uncle came and took him away. They went to his house in Freetown's outskirts he stayed there awhile until the rebels succeeded and took over Sierra Leone. That's when he escaped and went to America and moved in with his now adopted mom Laura Simms who he met a year earlier in New York when he went to speak for children who fought in war. Now Ishmael is an Advocate working against the abuse of children in wartime. He is admired by many people for his speeches and his generous acts. Ishmael Beah truly is a hero.