There are about 12,500 young girl soldiers that fought in the Dem. Republic of Condo (RDC) in the regular army ranks as well as in the various pro or anti-government militias. They have never benefited from any reintegration or disarmament plan, says Save the Children', an NGO which works to recover children used by the warring parties. The former girl - soldiers, explains the NGO, were used as wives' more than soldiers' seeing as the soldiers largely sexually exploited them in camps. They were also used as slaves by the military leaders. According to Save the Children', help is needed, as many of the slave' girls have contracted Hiv/Aids and many are then rejected by the villages they come from, because they are sick and lacking any economic value'. The NGO asks the international community to focus not only on the RDC, but in all other countries where slave girls and are exploited, whose very existence is made worse, if at all possible, even than the child soldiers' ubiquitous in several civil conflicts'.