Consider this: you are outside of your house with your older brother, when a group of soldiers with weapons confront you, telling you to come with them. Your brother tries to flee, but one of the men catches him and cuts his throat with a machete. You start to cry, but they say if you cry, they will kill you. You have no choice but to become their captive.
Over the past 10 years, the cruelty of one man has destroyed more than 30,000 young lives in this way. Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, uses children to join his path of massacre by kidnapping and desensitizing them to become war machines.
Brought to light by three young filmmakers who traveled to Africa in 2003, a 23-year-old war, one of the most overlooked crises in the world according to humanitarians, birthed the organization Invisible Children.
During the past six years, by exposing the plight of child soldiers through a movie, Invisible Children: Rough Cut, and holding peace rallies to get the government’s attention, Invisible Children has effectively made strides to end this conflict. The cause will put on its ?most adventurous initiative ever,? titled The Rescue, April 25.
Bullard High School student Paige Milgrom, ?09, who looks to intern with the organization when she attends Point Loma Nazarene University, is an active volunteer for the promotion of The Rescue.
?We?re symbolically abducting ourselves,?Milgrom said. ?After meeting at Peoples Church at 3, we?re going to walk 2.8 miles to Fresno State and just wait until a political leader, hopefully followed by the media, comes and ?rescues? us.?
Despite a lack of attention from any Fresno political representatives so far, Daniel Bunker, college pastor at NorthPointe Community Church, says the event will come together smoothly.
?The mogul is supposed to come out and give us a speech, telling us we’re ‘rescued,’? Bunker said. ?Other cities in California already have ‘rescuers’ lined up for them, so if Fresno or some other city hasn’t been rescued, they’ll send a bus of people over to help us get rescued. We’ve been promoting the event a lot at our services, and I’ve seen that a lot of kids really want to get involved.?
North Pointe member Tatiana Fontes, ’10, decided to join the more than 400 Fresnans signed up online to participate in the event, inspired by the Invisible Children film.
?The movie put into perspective how intense this crisis is and how we can do something about it,? Fontes said. ?I?m really excited that the community is coming together to help something bigger than ourselves.?
Michael Gonzalez, ?11, of Clovis West, who previously helped raise $7,000 for Invisible Children through a benefit concert, appreciates the focus the organization has toward the younger generation.
?I love this organization because it really gets the youth involved, especially by using media like YouTube and Facebook,? Gonzales said. ?Most of my friends are involved, and I?ve been telling other people about the Rescue as well ? We can win this war as the youths of the nation.?
Janae Keys-Bramlett, ?09, helps promote the event through word of mouth, distributing flyers in places like Starbucks and repetitively donning her Invisible Children T-shirts.
?When they showed the movie at my church, Northside [Christian Church], they sold T-shirts we?re supposed to wear throughout the month of April,? Keys-Bramlett said. ?Some of my friends and I would go to the mall and we?d all wear our shirts purposely, and some of the people working there would ask us what they were about.?
Against the seemingly daunting challenge of starting change, Fontes is confident the group’s effort will succeed.
?I believe if we all come together as a community, we can make a difference,? Fontes said.
