These sculptures are the stories of girl soldiers recruited to fight in the civil wars of their lands. Girls who dreamed of playing sports, who went to school, wove beautiful baskets and worked on the farms. Their lives were suddenly and violently taken away from them and replaced with the roles of war. Girls represent 30% of child soldiers used for fighting and other purposes and are especially vulnerable when it comes to sexual violence. Each sculpture represents a child soldier accompanied by the object she once held close, like a fond memory or a dream that was deferred by war. Perhaps she was reaching for a handmade ball or weaving a basket when armed forces invaded her village and altered her life forever. Here she is frozen in a moment of her life, which is being deconstructed by war. Yet she remembers the time when she played, dreamed and felt loved. The girls and women who held up half the sky perished before they developed into whom they dreamed of once being…simply a girl.
