Invisible Children

Have you ever heard of Invisible Children? Do you know their story and the great things they are trying to accomplish? If not it's time that you find out.

Back in the spring of 2003, three teenagers from Southern California, Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, in search of a story to film, traveled to Africa; never knowing that what they were about to do would make the front page in the newspaper and put them down in the history books forever. Upon their arrival, they witnessed a conflict that both disgusted and inspired them. They were told about an army of children, who were kidnapped from their families and forced to fight.  After hearing this, they knew they had to do something to help.

After returning to the states, they had a film that they just had to show the world. They called the documentary, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut". This exposed to the world the horribly real things that were happening in northern Uganda.s. Things such as night commutes and child soldiers. One of the most predominate responses to the film was "How can I help?". In response to this, the teens created the non-profit Invisible Children Inc.

This conflict is probably the most heartbreaking conflicts ever hidden from the world. It is currently Africa's longest running war in it's history. It all started in the 1980's with a woman named Alice Lakwena. She believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to her and told her to overthrow the Ugandan government for being unjust to the Acholi. Lakwena and her followers tried and failed to complete their goal. Lakwena was exiled and Joseph Kony, Alice Lakwena's acclaimed cousin, took charge. He transformed the small rebel army into the powerful LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) it is today.

But the LRA didn't get the same support it got as the Holy Spirit Movement by the Acholi people. The government started to increase their offensive line and with the support of the natives ceasing fast, the LRA resorted to abducting children for their unjust cause. Over 90% of the LRA army were abducted as children.

Recently, more attention has been showed to the conflict. In 2001, the US Patriot Act officially declared the LRA to be a terrorist organization. This was a huge step toward stopping the conflict just because it got noticed. In 2004, Congress passed the Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act, the first piece of American legislation to address this disaster. And in 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and four of his top commanders. In July 2007, in response to an increased concern for peace in northern Uganda by the American people, the US State Department appointed Tim Shortly to Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution with his immediate focus on northern Uganda. This showed that the U.S. wanted to officially end the conflict peacefully. That same year, the United Kingdom bolstered their commitment to peace by allocating £70 million in aid, while Germany committed to a 25% increase in aid to Uganda by October 2010. Canada later became more than an international supporter of the peace process in February 2008 by joining the peace talks as an official observer.

Since September 2008, LRA attacks have become more frequent and hostile, provoking military action against the rebel group. The governments of Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic launched an attack on LRA strongholds within DR Congo. “Operation Lightning Thunder”, the name designated for the counteroffensive, was largely unsuccessful in light of both the failure to reach top LRA leadership and the onslaught of violence that followed.

One month later on December 24th, 2008, the LRA launched a retaliatory attack against the people of DR Congo. This spread terror throughout the nation. The LRA murdered over six hundred and abducted more than one hundred and sixty children to fight amongst its ranks. More than 104,000 Congolese have been displaced since Christmas in attempts to escape the LRA forces.

With all these attacks and abductions, the Invisible Children can't stress enough how important it is to help these people, now more than ever.

When the Invisible Children Organization came to my school to talk about their themselves, you could obviously tell they were very passionate about their cause. The video that they played was heartbreaking. Jacob, the boy that the Invisible Children followed around, told his story and how hard his life was and how vital our help was. He talked about how his village was raided and his parent's were murdered, right before his eyes. At one point he started crying and I couldn't help but cry. He was so sad. It's horrible how we take our everyday freedoms for granted when there are people all around the world that are so worse off then we are. We don't even think about the stuff when we have; a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs and an education; a life. They live in fear everyday. They don't know if they will see the morning or their mother or father or brother or sister. It is so unfortunate.

Donate your time and help save the innocent that are being terrorized by LRA.

Link:  http://invisiblechildren.com/donate

Sources:
http://invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war
http://invisiblechildren.com/our-team
http://invisiblechildren.com/our-story