On Wednesday night, Satya magazine sponsored an event at Bluestockings bookstore and cafe in the Lower East Side of Manhattan featuring Jimmie Briggs reading from his book Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War and talking about the plight of children who are forced to become soldiers by circumstance, their parents, or other reasons.

Briggs visited Afghanistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Colombia, and Sri Lanka over ten years to chronicle the stories of children who had done and seen things that no one (let alone children) should have to see and do. Briggs was honest and direct about the lives of these children and the causes of the conflicts, and I would highly recommend reading his book and then doing what you can to prevent this tragic, and preventable, scourge. For more, you can read his interview in Satya.