Monday, November 14, 2011
News
The Mirror 5
Night walk, film put Uganda war into perspective AMBER KAZMIERSKI news@uncmirror.com Night commuting, to the average American, often means driving home from work. To the average Northern Ugandan child, though, it has a very different meaning. To Northern Ugandan children, night commuting means walking four or more miles to a city in order to be safe from the Lord’s Resistance Army. The UNC Invisible Children Committee hosted a walk and film screening to give students a sense of what this means. At the beginning of the event, a member of the University of Northern Colorado’s committee broke the group into two sections and told those who came to follow them from the University Center to the Garden Theater.
The walk in their shoes replicated the experiences of children who night commute in Northern Uganda. When everyone arrived at the Garden Theater, they huddled into a circle and were given a candle to represent a Ugandan child. On the way back to the UC, attendees were told to be
silent in order to get the full affect of night commuting and to experience the fear those children felt. The committee members would tell attendees throughout their walk to blow out their candles. Each extinguished flame represented a child who was abducted or killed by the LRA.
RICHELLE CURRY | THE MIRROR
Students walk across campus in silence with candles in honor of children kidnapped or killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army during the Invisible Children “In Their Footsteps” event Friday.
“It’s weird to imagine that in order to go sleep you have to walk four miles,” said Katherine Foote, a freshman acting major. “Even the government soldiers aren’t any help. I don’t understand. What would happen if something bad happened? You have no one to turn to.” Following the walk, UNC’s IC Committee showed the film “Go,” which tells the story of several high school students who participated in Schools for Schools, an Invisible Children program. Schools for Schools helps high schools around the country raise money to help rebuild schools in Northern Uganda, and students who
raised the most money won a trip to Northern Uganda to see where the money was going. “I didn’t really know what it was at all when I came, and watching ‘Go’ was really sad,” said Danielle Flowers, a freshman acting major. “Just thinking that there are kids that are our age or younger that are suffering, and I don’t know what to do. Northern Uganda has been facing war for 17 years. Joseph Kony leads the LRA, and when most of his followers abandoned him, he then turned to abducting children and making them child soldiers. The LRA brainwashes children, desensitizing them
enough that they will kill each other and even their own family members. Sheldon Brown, a senior elementary education major and head of the UNC IC Committee, said the first Invisible Children film he saw changed his life and, after he graduates, he wants to become a roadie and spread awareness of the 17-year long war. “A single story can change the world,” Brown said. For more information about the UNC Invisible Children Committee, visit their Facebook page. For more information on Invisible Children, visit their website at www.invisiblechildren.com.