Film exposes students to silent war in Africa

Invisible Children hosted a film screening, “The Rescue,” on Monday evening at the Memorial Student Center to raise awareness about the silent war in Africa.
“This problem is really overlooked, and if anybody can do anything about this, it’s us,” said Brittney Withrow, president of Invisible Children.
Invisible Children is a nonprofit organization which started in 2003 when three young boys from the suburbs of California went to Africa in search of a story and to film a documentary. What they found changed their lives. They encountered a hidden civil war that had been going on for generations.
After arriving in Northern Uganda, they found thousands of children fleeing to shelters to escape the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has been abducting children for 23 years. The boys are forced to fight and kill and the girls are raped and used as trophies for the commanders.
“The average age of children that are abducted is between seven and 14, which is very disturbing,” Withrow said. “It’s a kill or be killed situation.”
Withrow said 30,000 children have been abducted to date.
After seeing the film, students were disgusted and ready to get involved.Krystal Ashemeade, freshman pre-nursing major from Waldorf, Md., came to the screening for extra credit and said she is really glad.
“That movie was scarier than a horror movie,” Ashmeade said. “It really just made me cry, because it’s so sad. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through. I plan on going to call our senator every day, every single day.”
Members of Invisible Children are asking students to get involved by calling their senators to pressure President Barack Obama to sign into law the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. The law would require Obama to lead an international effort to rescue the child soldiers and arrest Joseph Kony and his top commanders as well as rebuild the war torn area within 180 days of passage.
“I feel like it’s a serious problem, and it’s absolutely devastating what they are doing,” said Marshall Cooper, freshman environmental science major from Athens, Ohio.
After the screening, students were asked to sign a citizen’s arrest warrant petition. After receiving 250,000 warrants by Dec. 15, Invisible Children members will turn these into Congress and demand the war be put to rest.
“We just really need people to call, e-mail and write their senators and let them know that you really care about this issue and something needs to be done,” Withrow said.
  
Jayme Meadows can be contacted by e-mail at meadows130@marshall.edu.