Abby Watkins
Contributing Writer
An assembly was held by Invisible Children Club to raise awareness about the crisis in Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army on Oct. 8 in the cafeteria.
Two representatives from Invisible Children International came to Mira Costa to present a short film, “The Rescue,” which outlined how over 30,000 children in Uganda have been abducted from their homes and forcibly enlisted in the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group against the Ugandan government.
“Seeing and hearing about the lives of the children at the assembly really puts things into perspective. You don’t realize just how lucky you are until you get a glimpse into the lives of others,” senior Alex Murad said.
Invisible Children International was founded in 2003 by three film students who traveled to Uganda and discovered the plight of the children there. Though their initial goal consisted only of making a documentary the overwhelming response they received caused them to create a non-profit organization to help fix the problem.
According to the representatives, the name “Invisible Children” comes from the idea that the war is unseen by the international community and that many don’t know about the increasing problem of child soldiers.
“There are all of these things going on in our community that we’re aware of, but many people don’t realize what’s happening to these children,” said senior Lizzie Kubo-Kirshenbaum, the co-president of Invisible Children Club.
“The Rescue” was released in early 2009 and emphasizes the need for the International Criminal Court to indict Joseph Kony, the founder of the Lord’s Resistance Army, for war crimes.
Invisible Children was asked for attendees to sign a petition to ask President Barack Obama to make a public statement condemning the abductions. It also seeks donations to the organization to support the cause.
“[The movie] provides an update on the situation in Uganda and the continued Invisible Children peace effort,” said club co-president and senior Jeff Whelan.
High school chapters of Invisible Children are grouped by region, then paired with a school in Africa that has been affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army and is in need of outside funding, through a program known as Schools for Schools.
Mira Costa is supporting the Keyo Secondary School in Uganda and is in second place in group for having raised $900.
“We will be revamping our fundraising events this year in response to the increasing number of child abductions,” Whelan said. “Over the past three years that Invisible Children has been at Mira Costa, we’ve raised over $16,000.”
Whelan and Kubo-Kirshenbaum founded the club three years ago after viewing the original Invisible Children film. They said the cause inspired them to do what they could to raise awareness and funds so they could help bring an end to the Lord’s Resistance Army and bring Joseph Kony to justice.
“When I first saw the movie, it really struck a chord with me that such a huge problem was going on and we didn’t know about it,” Kubo-Kirshenbaum said.
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