Invisible Children

      Some things really just make you stop and think.

  
  It can be such a humbling experience to be reminded of  just how insignificant my own day to day 'problems' are, especially compared to some of the real suffering going on in the world. One thing that helped me to really understand that was the group Invisible Children.

    This is the second year in a row that the organization Invisible Children has  come to visit my school, and it was also the first time I was actually able to see what they are all about (last year I was out of school sick). But when I came back in everyone had this excited buzz around them, and I knew something big had gone on. 

When I asked around to my friends about what had happened and who the Invisible  Children were, they tried to explain it to me. I felt empathy for the poor children that they told me about in Africa. The ones who were dragged off, out of their homes, and forced to become soldiers. Yet, I still didn't fully understand what it was all about. 


After seeing and listening to the Invisible Children myself now I do, and I feel empowered to make a change. 

O-kaayy, well that's very nice and all, you might be thinking, but are you going to tell us about them or not? 
Why of course, thank you for reminding me! 

 To start off it might help to get a little familiarized with some background information on the conflict:

    Many people aren't aware of the ongoing war that's happening in northern Africa, as we speak. It is actually the longest war in African history, and has been going on for more than 23 years. 


    It's 'roots' can be traced back to the country of Uganda in the 1980's, when Alice Lakwena claimed that the Holy Spirit ordered her to overthrow the government because they had been unjust to the Acholi people. This movement gained popularity with the Acholis and became known as the Holy Spirit Movement. But then, Alice Lakwena was exiled and no clear leader of the group was left standing. 

Joseph Kony

     That is when Joseph Kony took over and transformed the movement into the Lord's Resistance Army (otherwise known as the LRA). Ever since then, war has been waging between the LRA and Government of Uganda with millions of innocent people caught in the middle. 


However, the Acholi people have never given their support to the LRA like they did to the HSM. With approval and forces dwindling, the LRA resorted to the abduction of children.

     




Now it is estimated that up to 90% of LRA's troops were abducted as children. 

They are forced to do gruesome, unimaginable things that no one should ever be subjected to do, least of all mere children.  



(It makes me sick to just think about it.)

One of Joseh Kony's child soldiers

 

  



 The Ugandan government reacted in response to the LRA and its abductions by forcibly removing people from their homes and into overcrowded camps, in hopes of better protecting them. This has just ended in even great suffering in itself (with no means of earning a living or raising food these camps have resulted in poverty, disease and starvation). 

Despite such harsh conditions and circumstances, this conflict has been the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world to date. 

Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole; the co-founders of Invisible Children

Movement to Change: 

Outside responses to the LRA were lacking until fairly recently. It started out as an exciting spring trip in 2003 to Africa to find a story for three young filmmakers, but turned out to be a life changing experience for them when they discovered the horrors of the LRA. 

The extreme injuries this  person has suffered from are courtesy of Joseph Kony

After returning back to the U.S. they made their documentary "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" to help expose the LRA and create awareness in people like me and the other students in my school, except on a nationwide scale. 
Besides their documentary, these three visionaries have made other great strides to help the victims of the LRA. To learn more about what Invisible Children is and what it does, and also about what you can do, go to this site: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/homepage  

"Discover the unseen" and help make a change

So, all of this is why I feel inspired to make my mark on the world and its going to start by making a difference, a difference with something like this.