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Outlook: Outlook Weekend: Things Only Adults Should Know

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Teddy Bear

27/01/2018 GMT

Outlook Weekend: Things Only Adults Should Know

BBC World Service - Outlook, Outlook Weekend: Things Only Adults Should Know

Stories of people who rebuilt their lives after a rough childhood

Sherry Johnson was married to her rapist in the US when she was just 11 and child soldier Ayik Chut was tortured by another child, Anyang Reng, in a prison camp in South Sudan.

Sherry Johnson grew up in Florida, one of the 25 US states where a child of any age can be married with their parents' consent. She's 58 now and she told Jo Fidgen what happened to her as a child. In a distressing account, she describes having her first child when she was only 10 and marrying the man who raped her, when she was 11. She's now campaigning against child marriage.

Ayik Chut first met Anyang Reng in a prison camp run by children on the border of what is now South Sudan. Both were child soldiers in the 1980s in Sudan's civil war. The younger of them, Ayik Chut, was just 13 when he took up arms and was harshly punished by Anyang while in prison. Eventually each of the men ended up in Australia where, by chance, they met again.

Image: Lonely Teddy Bear sitting in the dark room
Credit: Getty Images

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