Surviving Displacement.
This is me being preachy, bear with me, it needs said.
I just got back from taking part in Displace Me, where I was part of a recreation of an internal displacement camp created to encourage awareness of and support for people living in displacement camps all over the world. (Though the focus was on the displacement camps of Northern Uganda, as shown in Invisible Children.) The war in Uganda has been raging for 22 years. The citizens of Northern Uganda have been living in displacement camps for the last 11. They cannot risk leaving the camps to farm for food or go back to their homes for fear that the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) will come and either kill them or steal their children to turn into soldiers. They die by the thousands from poverty, fire, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and war. The children are orphaned and left to raise themselves, packed in cattle dung huts. less than 10% of the children can afford the $20 a month school tuition. America has the power to help.
I slept in a cardboard house with 4 other girls with simple blankets, in windy, 32 degree weather. Each of us got a ration of one pack of Saltine Crackers, and two bottles of water. We spent the night watching one of the Invisible Children videos, writing to congressmen, and getting close and cuddly with near perfect strangers for warmth. I stayed huddled with my friends all night, but I didn't sleep at all. at 7:00am, just as we woke up and went to watch the closing video... it started to hail on us.
It was one of the coolest, most thought provoking nights I've had in a LONG time.
Go to www.invisiblechildren.com. Help make a change.
I just got back from taking part in Displace Me, where I was part of a recreation of an internal displacement camp created to encourage awareness of and support for people living in displacement camps all over the world. (Though the focus was on the displacement camps of Northern Uganda, as shown in Invisible Children.) The war in Uganda has been raging for 22 years. The citizens of Northern Uganda have been living in displacement camps for the last 11. They cannot risk leaving the camps to farm for food or go back to their homes for fear that the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) will come and either kill them or steal their children to turn into soldiers. They die by the thousands from poverty, fire, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and war. The children are orphaned and left to raise themselves, packed in cattle dung huts. less than 10% of the children can afford the $20 a month school tuition. America has the power to help.
I slept in a cardboard house with 4 other girls with simple blankets, in windy, 32 degree weather. Each of us got a ration of one pack of Saltine Crackers, and two bottles of water. We spent the night watching one of the Invisible Children videos, writing to congressmen, and getting close and cuddly with near perfect strangers for warmth. I stayed huddled with my friends all night, but I didn't sleep at all. at 7:00am, just as we woke up and went to watch the closing video... it started to hail on us.
It was one of the coolest, most thought provoking nights I've had in a LONG time.
Go to www.invisiblechildren.com. Help make a change.