Three young Americans make video to support "invisible children"
By Susan Ellis, Washington File Staff Writer
Washington - Three young Americans hope that on the night of April 29, thousands of Americans will take part in a "global night commute," lying down in the streets of their hometowns for a humanitarian mission.
"Congress couldn't ignore that," says one of the producers of a documentary made to show the plight of thousands of children in Northern Uganda who leave their homes every night for a long hike to town to avoid being abducted by soldiers of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The children are called "night commuters," hiking through the heat and dust, clutching mats and blankets as they pour into the town of Gulu to sleep under the veranda of the hospital and in a bus park.
Their plight was shown March 8 in the documentary Invisible Children at the Hudson Institute, a policy research organization in Washington.
"We don't fear abduction during the day," says one young boy on the documentary. "But at night they come for us." If apprehended, the boys then are conscripted into the rebel army and terrorized into killing and raping.
The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has been waging a 20-year war of terror against the Acholi people of Northern Uganda. Hundreds of the Acholi are dying every day. Children are abducted, women raped, schools closed while the population starves.
This tragedy has been captured on videotape by a trio of young American men, Jason Russell, Laren Poole and Bobby Bailey. They have traveled to the region three times, beginning in the spring of 2003.
The young men wrote letters describing their proposed mission to raise funds and bought video equipment from eBay (an Internet auction site for buying goods cheaply). Their goal now is to enlist the time, talent and money of Americans to support the Acholi in their struggle.
The plight of the Acholi will receive the attention of the U.S. Congress March 9 at a hearing before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. U.S. government officials from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and representatives from nongovernmental humanitarian organizations will testify on the crisis in Northern Uganda, the conditions in the international displaced persons camps and the abductions of children.
Two of the video's producers, Russell and Poole, appeared at the Washington screening to describe their campaign and enlist support. Some of their strategies, they said, include selling bracelets in different colors, accompanied by a copy of the video, and organizing a number of fund-raising projects across America, such as car washes, dance marathons and sponsored bicycle rides. They hope to capture nationwide attention on television news programs via the Global Night Commute.
The filmmakers formed a nonprofit organization called Invisible Children Inc. in 2004. The organization has started an education program in the Ugandan war area and a bracelet campaign that employs Ugandans and helps fund the education program.
They have launched a national tour to screen the documentary in more than 150 cities across the United States and have sent out seven teams in recreational vehicles to canvas the country with the film. Each screening includes a viewing of the film, a question-and-answer session and opportunities to become involved in helping the children of Uganda.
Reactions from audiences in high schools and colleges to the documentary reveal the deep emotion young Americans experience as they watch the humanitarian crisis unfold on the screen.
One part of the video shows Jacob, recently escaped from his conscripted post in the violent rebel army. As the camera watches, he breaks down in sobs, remembering his brother's murder. Jacob is 14 years old.
A university student in Wisconsin emerged from the screening and said: "It changed my life. You can't see it and keep living the same way."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)