The Honors College Assembly will provide a free screening of Invisible Children’s 2009 film “The Rescue” this Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in Gordon Palmer 208.
“Apwonjo, an organization that focuses on issues pertaining to sub-Saharan Africa, typically hosts Invisible Children about twice a year, and we’ve been extremely successful in the past,” Secretary of Apwonjo Brian Kraus said. “I’m so excited to see the crowd turn up.”
“The Rescue” is a half-hour film that documents the crisis involving the abduction of more than 30,000 children as young as seven years old into the Lord’s Resistance Army by the war criminal Joseph Kony.
According to the Invisible Children website, Kony has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on 12 counts of crimes against humanity, 21 counts of war crimes and is accused of killing thousands and displacing up to two million people.
Kony and his rebel militia allegedly force-feed captured children drugs and alcohol and brainwash them using intimidation, manipulation and fear. The boys are given weapons to fill the ranks of his army while the girls are forced to be sex slaves for his officers.
“The intervening years since haven’t seen a complete end to the LRA, but the army has been pushed backwards and Invisible Children has funded initiatives across central Africa to keep villages informed and protected,” Kraus said. “IC also lobbies the US federal government to capture Kony and bring and end to this war.”
Laren Poole, Jason Russell and Bobby Bailey founded Invisible Children eight years ago in hopes of creating a not-for-profit organization aimed at spreading awareness about people living in regions of conflict that has spread from northern Uganda to three other countries in Central Africa. The team first encountered the violence in Northern Uganda in 2003 when they met a boy named Jacob who feared for his life.
In “The Rescue,” the three young filmmakers’ journey into this conflict calls specifically for the rescue of the captured children and the urgency for international awareness.
“I remember first hearing about Invisible Children in high school,” said Kelly Roy, a sophomore majoring in communicative disorders. “It’s amazing how much media attention for the cause has grown over the years.”
Kraus says the screening is a chance to get involved in a movement and see the end to a decade-long goal of stopping violence caused by the LRA.
“Invisible Children has been closing in on the end of this conflict for years now, and it’s all due to students like us pushing for change,” Kraus said. “Putting your time into a project this big and this near the end is rewarding, and the IC screenings show how much your effort can do.”
There will be a follow-up speech by a Ugandan member of the Invisible Children team and question and answer session.
Afterward, the Invisible Children team will sell promotional items and answer questions on how to get involved in helping the movement. It is open to all students.
