Invisible Children

Imagine you are eight years old. Every night you walk from your home on the outskirts of the city into town. There you try to find a safe place to sleep. You are not safe in your own bed at home. If you remain there, soldiers might come, kidnap you, and force you, if you are a boy, to fight in a war that is going on. You will learn how to shoot a gun, you may even be forced to kill your own family members, or other children. If you are abducted and try to escape, you will be killed without question, if you cry, you may be killed because that would mean you are thinking about home...and thinking about escaping. You may even be younger than eight years old-perhaps five. On a day, you may be told that you must kill 30 people, 40 people...
If you are a girl and are abducted, you will be sold in the sex trade, used as a sex toy by rebel soldiers... you may be as young as five. you may be as old as 18. and your home is not safe.
And you are not the only one...in fact there are thousands of you who are walking into town.
Unfortunately, this is not a fabricated scenario...it is very real, and it is getting worse...
In northern Uganda, thousands of children crowd into the cities at night for fear of being abducted. Many have lost brothers or sisters to the rebel soldiers...they all live in fear...
and most likely, you have never heard of them.
This past Tuesday i had the chance to see a documentary on this here at Moody. It is called Invisible Children.
The makers of the movie (one whom i was able to meet) originally went to Sudan to document the war going on there...however, they stumbled upon these children, with their camera from ebay, having never made a documentary before, and said "we found our story, we are staying here." They made a rough cut of it, brought it back, and have been touring the U.S. for the past six months, not only raising awareness, but informing people on how to be actively involved. One of the guys appeared on Oprah. They are returning in a month's time to finish the film, this time with 20 other videographers, and endorsements from Target, Starbucks, and Urban Outfitters.
If you would like more info, visit their website:
www.invisiblechildren.com