December, 2000

The UN leadership had been discussing the approval of the K.A.R. project for days, it would be Jeremy Sawyer, a friend of Secretary General Kiessling, who would demand immediate approval. Sawyer wanted to create a legion of soldiers capable of ending any conflict in the world, he had a rather utopian vision, but Kiessling agreed, especially since the problem related to poverty was of utmost importance to him, and on January 1, 2001 it would be approved with an absolute majority in the UN General Council.

February, 2001

After hearing about the K.A.R. initiative, many young people decided to enroll immediately, and several mobile UN program enrollment centers were set up and quickly overrun.                                In the first few months, enrollment was difficult, with lines stretching from early in the morning to late in the afternoon. More than three hundred million boys participated in the enrollment, coming from the worst suburbs, but not all of them enrolled of their own free will. Many boys were enrolled by their own families, sometimes by force. It could be that the parents wanted a better future for their children, or they hoped to get out of poverty.                                                              In reality, however, three hundred million was not such a large number because the enrollment was extended to all UN member countries, and there were millions of people in each country who met the criteria. More than a billion were obvious candidates, but only thirty percent enrolled.

ROME, Torre Angela

In Rome, there were several criteria that met the UN criteria and as many as three were considered "uninhabitable" and among them was Torre Angela.                                                              Massimo Russo lived in this neighborhood; he was 16 years old and had been out of school for a year. His family was not the best, his father was serving ten years in Rebibbia prison for armed robbery and drug trafficking, while his brother took over his father's drug business, his mother was a housewife and tried to keep Max away from that life.

Max used to go to the gym near his home to box. It was his favorite sport and also helped him blow off steam. After the gym, he would go to his best friend's house: Julia. She lived in the same neighborhood and they had been friends for over a decade. In January 2001, Marco Russo, Max's older brother, decided to entrust him with a heroin delivery, but when his mother found out, she tried to stop Max, but it was too late. Max made the delivery for his brother and his mother realized that she had to do something drastic as soon as possible or it would be too late to save him from this life.

In February 2001, his mother decided to enroll her son, without his knowledge, in the K.A.R. program in hopes of a better life. In 2002, her request was accepted, mainly due to the testimony of Max's mother about the situation of the boys in the Roman neighborhood, and on February 12, 2002, Max left for the United States, bound for Phoenix.

Mexico City, Tepito

In January 2001, the Sanchez family lived in the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City. Kenny was the middle child of three; there was his twenty-four-year-old older brother, Carlos, and his nine-year-old younger sister, Sofia. The three boys lived with their father, Claudio, who was their only parent after their mother's death.

Claudio Sanchez was the head of Nuevas Mexico, a major drug cartel at the time. He always tried to implicate his eldest son, Carlos, who had no intention of following in his father's footsteps and blamed his father for his mother's death. Kenny, however, had always been drawn to the life of the narcos, and his brother always tried to keep him and his sister out.                                                  The fights between Carlos and his father became increasingly violent, and Sofia and Kenny became more and more involved. One fateful day, Pablo decided to take his son, Kenny, to work with him. He took him to his estate, where his men ran the drug trade on an international level.

The estate had armed men in every corner and women enjoying the luxury of the estate with the cartel men. Kenny's joy ended when he saw his father take the life of a man, maybe a debtor or maybe a spy, but the scene shocked Kenny, who came home and told his brother everything: "He killed him" Kenny said with tears in his eyes.

"Don't worry, hermano, I will fix everything," he said, hugging his younger brother.

The next day, Carlos decided to take Kenny and Sofia to his aunt, who lived in the United States, and report his father to the Mexican authorities. Kenny refused to go to the U.S. He wanted to stay with his brother, who took him in. A few weeks later, Kenny came home at night and entered his room to find a huge pool of blood: it was Carlos, and his father was standing with his back to the window calling his men to clean up. The authorities, who were on Pablo's payroll, had told him about his son's complaint, and with his sister's disappearance, Pablo had no choice but to confront his son. Kenny stood motionless in front of the scene.

"He gave me no choice" Pablo said, trying to calm his son, "from now on it would be just you and me" he added. A few minutes later, Nuevas Mexico arrived to dispose of the body, and when they turned to find Kenny, they did not find him.                                                                                            Kenny left the house and ran as fast as he could away from the house to a mobile UN office, where Kenny decided to go in and when he was welcomed, he told his story. He was registered in February 2001 and accepted in 2002. On February 10, 2002, Kenny left for the U.S., bound for Phoenix.

California, Compton

Just outside of LA was Compton, a suburb notorious for its high number of murders each year. Here lived the Jackson family, consisting of Leroy Jackson, his wife Hannah and their only son Lucas. Leroy had always tried to go straight, although that was not easy in Compton. He worked at a hardware store in the suburbs of LA and took his son to a public school in the suburbs every time. The police were always prejudiced against Compton residents, so those who came from there were always stopped and searched.

One day in January 2001, Jonas, Hannah's brother, came to visit. He was known in the community as a drug dealer and was in the area for "work" that day and asked Leroy for a ride to LA. It would have been hard not to get stopped with a gunman in the passenger seat, but he was not stopped that morning. Jonas and Leroy got out of the car and parted ways. That evening, on the way back to Compton, he was pulled over by a patrol car and, as always, Leroy waved to the officer and took the booklet out of the glove compartment, but this time there was a gun. Jonas had left it there. So the officer drew his gun and shot Leroy.

That day would forever change the life of Lucas, who saw his father's death at the hands of an officer in every newspaper. He and his mother went to San Diego after the incident, and Hannah enrolled her son in K.A.R. with the tragic story attached. He was accepted in 2002 and left for Phoenix on February 4th.

Manchester, Moss Side

In the Moss Side neighborhood lived the Philippe family, a family made up of Michael, a single father, and his son Mason. Mason's mother had left them when he was only two years old, and since then Michael has had to support his son, working two jobs over the last fourteen years. He wanted a bright future for his son, so he saved everything he could to be able to afford to send him to college. Mason was a rather shy boy who was very good with computers. He had an old used Asus, spent day and night learning and discovering new things about hacking, and specialized in hacking protected sites. Mason was often picked on by the boys in his neighborhood because of his weight; in fact, he was quite overweight. He often came home bruised or out of breath because of the neighborhood bullies. One day, Mason used his hacking skills to add warrants for the bullies' arrest to the police database.

The next week, the bullies were arrested, but soon the police discovered the truth and came knocking on Philippe's door. The Department gave Mason two options: reform school or military school. Michael chose military school, even though Mason strongly disagreed and defended what he had done.                                                                                                                                                                In January 2001, exactly one week after the Ministry's decision, Mason found the K.A.R. Initiative on the Internet and figured that if he was going to go to military school, he was going to go to the best one, so he enrolled and told his story, at least his version of it. In 2002, he was accepted, and on February 7, he left for the U.S., bound for Phoenix.