Introducing the African Awareness Group
This group allows for students on the Lewis and Clark College campus to provide important information to the community about issues that are affecting areas throughout the continent of Africa. Its current focus is the war that has been taking place in northern Uganda for the past twenty years between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the government of Uganda. The main target of this war has been children between the ages of 6 and 18 who are being abducted to become the major fighting force for this war.
Invisible Children is a Non-Profit organization started by three young men from San Diego, California who decided that they wanted to take a trip to Sudan and report what was going on in the war torn area. While traveling to Sudan they foudn an entirely different story that has opened millions of people’s eyes to a war that has been unseen and unspoken of for the past twenty years.
They created a film in order to show others what was really happening in this area. The film, titled Invisible Children, addresses a war that has been going on in Uganda for twenty years now, started by the Lord’s Resistance Army, to oust the central government and President Museveni. The Sudanese government aids the LRA and, to get back at them, Museveni aids Sudanese rebels. It’s an awful play of favorites and political favors. The LRA abducts children, between the ages of 7 and 12 mainly, and trains them to fight as soldiers by desensitizing them, often sending them out to kill family members, friends, or fellow abducted children.
In order to “protect” the Acholi people (the predominant tribe in Northern Uganda and the target of the LRA), the government has moved them into Internally Displaced Persons Camps, without adequate sanitation, food, or other basic humanitarian rights.
Because of the LRA’s abduction of children, the children have been commuting to the city centers to sleep in order to be protected by government guards. The number of commuters is down about 3,000 now, which is, I believe, more than half. However, the number of people dying in the IDP camps is now greater than the number of deaths resulting from the actions of the LRA.
Currently, peace talks are taking place in Juba, Sudan. This is the greatest chance for peace in all of the 20 years of war. The American government, on the other hand, has made no statement about the peace talks. Also, the International Criminal Court has indicated five of the LRA’s leaders, which is causing problems in the progress of peace talks. The leasers will not come into the open to discuss peace and instead send representatives that often misrepresent the opinions of the leaders. The Ugandan people want peace before justice: a sustainable peace that moves in the direction of conflict transformation.
The Invisible Children Organization has created a movement of students, parents, teachers and adults who support ending war in Northern Uganda. By showing the film and openly discussing this issue, students are becoming motivated to make change. Last year, Invisible Children was shown in over 130 cities across the US to participate in what was titled The Global Night Commute. Students, children, parents, adults, dogs and Lewis and Clark took to the streets in order to demonstrate what the children of Northern Uganda have to do every night in order to not be abducted by the LRA. We slept in parks on the ground, hoping to make the world as aware of the war as we are. The Global Night Commute was labeled one of the biggest demonstrated in the US for Africa, changing culture, policy, and lives. Over 80,000 people came to take a stand, by lying down for the people of Northern Uganda.
The film has become known in many high schools. It has caused people to be aware of the wolrd around them. Invisible Children, while on their first trip to Northern Uganda, asked the children they spoke with what they really wanted and the children responded, “to have the opportunity to go to school.” In honor of the children, Invisible Children has created a program titled ‘Schools for Schools’ in which donations and fundraising money goes towards children in Northern Uganda to put them through secondary school and college. Invisible Children has been able to pay for over one hundred children to attend school and follow their dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, school teachers, and so forth. It all began with three college students wanting to report the truth and now it has turned into a worldwide movement.
However, the war still has not come to a close and many people are still unaware of this issue. You may ask what you can do to help. The first thing you can do is visit the Invisible Children website to read more about this issue and watch clips about the current situation. The second thingyou can do is join the African Awareness Group on the Lewis and Clark campus and learn more about events that are going on at LC. Then you can attend the Second Annual Global Night Commute next spring, on April 28th. Hope to see you there.
Please contact Nicole Greenberg at nicoleg@lclark.edu with questions or for more information.