Invisible Children has posted a FANTASTIC video about the Global Night Commute, a U.S.-wide event they sponsored last April. Head over there and see it—I’m telling you, these guys not only have passion for justice, they are also very, very talented. I thank God for them every time I see their work.What was the Global Night Commute? On Saturday, April 29, roughly 80,000 people (one of which was Susan, who posted her report on this blog) camped in U.S. city streets to draw attention to Uganda’s “night commuters,” children who leave their villages each afternoon to walk miles to cities and towns to sleep in order to escape abduction. If you are unfamiliar with the crisis in Northern Uganda, see World Vision’s short synopsis. Essentially, rebel leader Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army terrorizes northern Uganda, fueling its forces by abducting children and forcing them to be soldiers, laborers and sex slaves. According to World Vision, more than 30,000 have been kidnapped since the war’s beginning in 1987, and more than 1.7 million people have been forced into displacement camps, where food and water are scarce and disease is plentiful. But children aren’t safe even in these camps. So, up to 50,000 leave their homes and the camps each night and walk miles to cities and towns to sleep on sidewalks or, if they are lucky, a shelter where they lay on concrete floors with thousands of other children. This nightly routine has earned them the name “night commuters.”
I wear a bracelet on my right wrist to remind me of Northern Uganda. Every time I see it, I breathe a prayer for those children, for God’s justice, for his will for me in this crisis. Folks, this is fire we can put out. Get involved.
If you’d like to know more about the plight of the children in northern Uganda, visit Invisible Children or World Vision. Consider buying one of Invisible Children’s bracelets. At the very least, consider signing World Vision’s online declaration "deploring the abuse of children forced by rebels to become soldiers, in northern Uganda. The signed declaration will be presented to the Bush administration, Congress and the United Nations." They're aiming for one million signatures, so head over there and sign it now. There are many ways you can help end the violence against these children—it’s up to you to decide what you will do.
tags: uganda invisible children