During 11 years of civil war, tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans died and more than 2 million were displaced. This brutal conflict gained further notoriety for the abduction and use of children as soldiers by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Poimboi Veeyah Koindu (Orphan Boys of Koindu in the Kissi language) is made up of a dozen youths who were all active RUF members. Most were between five and 10 years old when they were abducted, made to watch the RUF kill their families and forced to become child soldiers.

They then had to survive for years in the bush with the militia, notorious for its violence. By the time the peace deals were signed, the youths were stigmatised by the communities they had helped terrorise, and were forced to live on the streets. All deeply resented the total lack of social support available to them.

The Centre for the Victims of Torture hired David Alan Harris to travel to the war-ravaged district of Kailahun. There he offered group therapy and individual counselling and hosted workshops for community leaders. As dance was a central part of their cultural life, David offered dance therapy for the children, to the music of Sierra Leonean hip-hop. This was to heal the boys as well as encourage them to assume some responsibility for their participation in the RUF atrocities.

By the ninth dance session, every PVK member had willingly shared a gesture to symbolise his own suffering and another to represent the feelings of someone who had suffered under him. With only a few sessions remaining, David asked the former fighters what more they wanted to accomplish. Jeremiah, one of the boys, suggested performing for their community, where they would depict their roles in the war. They agreed enthusiastically and crafted a 25-minute drama and dance that they later enacted before hundreds in a community cultural healing event, attended by the affected communities.

A youth who as a boy had been forced to kill his own parents introduced the performance, telling the audience Healing and Forgiveness was about: how we were forced to do things; how we were punished; and how we punished others. Another spoke directly to the community: We are your children. Please accept us back. Many audience members were reduced to tears. In another scene, the audience shared a boy's agony, when he was forced to fire bullets into the corpses of his own father and sister who were slain by the rebel fighters he had been forced to join. Finally, in a post-war scene, a child returned to his village on his knees and asked for forgiveness from the local chief and community.

The performance had a huge impact on the audience, and many had a change of heart. Several local authorities, including the community Chief and officer-in-charge of the local police, addressed the young men, welcoming them back into the community. For their part, the war orphans had carefully included in their script a collective wish to be accepted again as your children, and these words reverberated in the hall, echoed back by the welcoming adults.