Since 1986, Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has kidnapped over 66,000 children and forced them to fight. The LRA is a group that was established to create a new government in Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. The group claims that God has sent spirits to Kony to direct to achieve this mission.
Kony is brutal. He forces children to fight for his cause, often supplying them weapons and forcing them to kill their own parents or siblings. If they are not forced into the army, Kony has kidnapped young girls and sold them into the world of sex slavery. But it’s not only the fear of the LRA that has children endangered. To avoid being abducted, the children of Uganda participate in “night commutes” where they walk great lengths during the evening and sleep in schools, churches, or office buildings in order to protect themselves from the LRA.
In 2003, a group of American filmmakers traveled to Africa. It is then, that they discovered the story of the LRA. They took an interest in it and produced a documentary titled The Invisible Children: the Rough Cut. What started off as a small documentary grew into a nationwide interest and in 2005, they established the Invisible Children non-profit organization.
Their mission is to spread the word, and inform America’s youth of the injustice that is happening in Uganda. They lobbied the government and in 2011, managed to get a troop of American soldiers to assist the Ugandan army to find and arrest Kony and stop his rebel army.
But they need your help. If the government sees a decreased interest in the work in Uganda, they could pull the troops out. Recently, Invisible Children released a short film, showcasing their work and going in depth with the issue at hand. Director Jason Russell said that KONY 2012, as the video is named, is a campaign “[aimed] to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.”
Do your part. Watch the video. Share it. Talk about it. Stay informed. Help make a difference.
KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.