Canadian official assesses war-affected children

Canada's Special Adviser on War-Affected Children is currently in Sierra Leone for a week-long assessment of the plight of children, and to visit child protection projects, the UN reported. Lt-Gen Romeo Dallaire, adviser to Canada's Minister of International Cooperation, is scheduled to visit projects in Daru and Kailahun in the east, in the southern town of Bo and in the northern town of Makeni. The visits, hosted jointly by the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and UNICEF, will show him child protection programmes in two stages: first at the disarmament and demobilisation stage which also encompasses gradual reintroduction of children to normal life and secondly, at the family and community reintegration stage, UNAMSIL said. Dallaire's visit is part of the Canadian International Development Agency's follow-up to commitments made at the Winnipeg Conference on War-Affected Children in September 2000 and of its Action Plan on Child Protection launched in June 2001, Sierra Leone Web reported. His reports from the field to the minister will indicate areas where Canada's efforts could be strengthened, the online news provider added. Dallaire,a former UN commander of observer missions in Rwanda and Uganda, is accompanied by representatives from the Canadian Embassy in Guinea and from the NGO, Cause Canada.