2008 Woodie Awards
Students take steps to help children in Uganda
Rose Bittner
Issue date: 2/13/06 Section: Culture
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The showing was one of several Diversity Week activities. Senior Jonathon Wellman, representative of Omicron Delta Kappa, took the lead in organizing this event.
"Our goal was to show ethnic, cultural and sexual diversity. We got the word out and have had only positive responses to the documentary," said Wellman. "Although people on the committee often disagreed about what events to choose, everyone on the Diversity Team wanted to show 'Invisible Children.' It was the first and easiest decision we made."
Much of the documentary was not narrated. The images were so powerful, disturbing commentary could add very little. Most shocking were the personal accounts of children.
"An estimated 25,000 children (7,500 girls) were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army since the conflict began," stated the UNICEF Humanitarian Action: Uganda Donor Update (Sept. 28, 2005). "Approximately 1,000 are 'child mothers' who conceived children of their own during captivity. The LRA uses boys and girls as fighters and porters, with children often subjected to extreme violence shortly after abduction. Many girls are allocated to officers as 'wives in a form of institutionalized rape.'"
Every night, it is estimated that 35,000 children in Gulu, Kitgum and Kalongo towns leave their homes and try to find safety in urban areas. The children make an average journey of three kilometers. Some walk up to eight kilometers each way.
Once the children arrive in the cities, they sleep in masses on the streets, in shelters or in the hospitals. Many have lost their parents to AIDS, and they have no protectors.
"I have nothing," one such boy said. "These are my clothes. I might get to eat once a day. I do not even have a blanket."
