Sean Carasso, of Falling Whistles, spoke about his organisation’s attempt to foster peace in Congo. The company sells whistles as a protest against children bearing arms, millions of people being killed, women being raped and the economy totally wrecked.
Carasso found himself in the Congo and saw children abducted and forced to fight and kill people. He talked at length to some of the boys who had managed to escape the rebel armies – some bearing arms as young as nine.
He said the boys told him that children too young to bear arms were sent out armed with whistles and who essentially formed baits for bullets.
Carasso wrote a blog called Falling Whistles complaining about the situation which went viral over the following days. He said the Congo is a most beautiful country and packed full of natural resources.
“We also found war,” he said. He met the rebel leaders and soldiers who had committed the vilest astrocities. There are 16,000 UN soldiers there but there are 1,500 deaths every day. Over six million people have died during the conflict.
“This is a war about resources,” he said, concerning Coltan, used in many of the gizmos practically everyone in the Western World has.
The problem in the Congo has persisted for decades. He was given a vintage whistle as a present by a friend who told him to wear it close to his heart to remind him of the boys and to represent peace for Congo.
He became a whistleblower and studied people that had said what they needed to be said. The whistle, he said, is a symbol of protest. People started wearing the whistles and it kind of worked.
The money is used to aid rehabilitation centres, help hospitals and support programmes to improve life in the country, put people into work and fund new businesses.
The press is not talking about the problem, Carasso said. The website is here.