has written a longer post about Invisible Children, a charity she's passionate about and one that visited Bethany's campus last week to give a presentation to students.
"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Each morning our students get up with the power to change the world. Too often, however, they do not act on this power because they think that one person cannot make that big of a difference. I shared this mentality until I heard the story of Jason, Laren, and Bobby. They were college students when they learned about Joseph Kony and the war he is responsible for in Africa. “It is the longest running conflict in the continent, and the soldiers are children abducted from their home and forced to fight” (Invisiblechildren.com). After raising money and getting lots of shots, the trio flew to Africa to document what was happening. What they saw changed them and the millions of students who have seen the resulting film, Invisible Children: Rough Cut.
The situation: For the past 23 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) have been locked in conflict. The war was started by a woman named Alice Lakwena who believed that the Holy Spirit had ordered her to overthrow the government. Eventually, she was exiled and the LRA was left without a clear leader. Joseph Kony, who claimed to be related to Alice, took command; however, the movement had lost support and soldiers were hard to recruit. Kony began abducting children because they were small and easy to indoctrinate. It is estimated that 90% of the LRA’s troops were abducted as children.
In 1996, the GoU forcibly moved thousands of citizens to displacement camps in hopes of protecting children from abduction. More than a decade later, close to a million people still live in these camps amongst disease, poverty, and food scarcity. Kony’s army has now impacted five countries on the continent.
The solution: Jason, Laren, and Bobby came back to the US, founded Invisible Children, a 501(c)3, and started a movement to bring this war to an end. Because of this organization a generation of American youth have banded together to raise awareness and money. Night commuting has ended, programs have been started to aid education and economic development, and President Obama has signed a bill into law that will help to bring this long-running war to an end.
My involvement began after seeing Rough Cut four years ago. There are some instances in life that change you, and I was a different person after seeing the film. Not only was I committed to do what I could to help the situation in Uganda, but I was reminded that individuals could change the world. This last concept was stressed when Margie Dillenburg presented Together We Are Free to the Academy. Margie is the Chief Operations Officer of Invisible Children and serves as their Movement Coordinator.
Throughout her presentation and into the next day, when she attended classes and a joint session of seminars, Margie stressed the importance of finding your “deeper yes” and finding a unique way to positively impact the world. The students left with a new sense of their power, and I cannot wait to see how they decide to change the world!
