Invisible Children
Categories : Africa, Missions, Movies, Uganda |
Last week we watched an incredible documentary about the refugee crisis in Northern Uganda. Invisible Children was a film made by 3 college age guys who planned to go and film the poverty in Southern Sudan, but wound up encountering the problems caused by the LRA in Gulu and surrounding districts in Uganda. Rebel fighting and abductions of the populace, especially children, have displaced millions from their homes, and have forced thousands of children to ‘commute’ into the towns every night and sleep there for their safety.
The film is slick, very youthful style filming and editing - almost like an episode of Survivor at times. It begins quite humorously as these 3 young guys ebmark on their big adventure, but it doesn’t take long before it gets very serious as we are confronted with some of the victims of this crisis. But then at the end (and in the abundance of DVD extras) it gets more positive as we are shown the work of the charity that these guys started on their return. Their Invisible Children charity is pitched squarely at high school and college aged American kids, giving them opportunities to help those less fortunate than them in Uganda. It’s a very upbeat, uplifting program. And they have an uber cool website too - Invisible Children
Ever since I first heard about the LRA and the problems in Gulu when I was in Uganda last year I’ve had a strong desire to visit there and help in some way. In fact we tried to get up there last year but there wasn’t enough time and it was deemed unsafe by our hosts. Watching this doco has inspired me more to want to help these people, victims of a tragedy that has been descibed by the UN as one of the worst, and most under-reported humanitarian crises in the world : “I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda, that is getting such little international attention.” (UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland) I don’t know if I will get the opportunity to get to northern Uganda when I visit there this year, but I really hope to do so at some point. In the meantime check out the Invisible Children website and watch their movie if you get the chance. Very moving.
