What People are Doing: Invisible Children

Invisible Children has been involved in the fight against the civil war in Uganda since 2003. During the past eight years, they have done all they could to bring the issue to the news and to develop ways to provide help to the people of Uganda. The following video shows the progress they have made.

.peace.

Two More Stories

John:

I met John during my weekend in Gulu last summer. He consented to tell his story in hopes that those that heard it would bring the horror back to America.

John was kidnapped when he was only 12 years old. He was hiding in the bush (the tall weeds and grass that surrounds the displacement camps) one night because he was too exhausted to walk all the way into town, which was about 3 miles away. He heard from his hiding spot as the army attacked his camp. He stayed as still as possible in hopes that they wouldn't find him. But they did. When John thought that the army had fled the camp, he started to leave his hiding spot and two men grabbed him threatening him with guns.

John was told that his whole family had been killed, so his best option was the "security" of the Lord's Resistance Army. John was a soldier in the army for 9 years. He worked closely with the leader, Joseph Kony, and he knew intimate details about the organization of the rebel army.

John blocked the terrible acts he committed from his memory. He is still effected each day by the things he was forced to do to innocent children and families. But each time he did, he knew that he was one day closer to freedom.

During an attack, John was shot in the leg and deemed useless to the army. Because he was such a faithful soldier, Kony allowed him to live and be taken back to his home. No one in his family survived in Gulu so John was taken to a recovery center to rehabilitate. He was given medical help and therapy to discuss what he went through. When he was allowed back into civilization, he experienced a personal stigma from other people. They believed he was still the enemy because he had been with the army for so long. It is hard for him to get a job because of this stigma.

Edward:

I met Edward at the rehabilitation center World Visions. He was still unable to leave the center because he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress, even years after escaping. He told us this story.

Edward was a soldier in the army for only a few weeks, when his commanding officer forced him to prove his loyalty to the army. They ambushed a small village and kidnapped a few women. The officer picked one woman and told Edward that if he was truly loyal to the cause he would have to use a machete to cut off her nose, lips, ears, and fingertips.

Edward was only 13 when the officer made him do this. He reluctantly accomplished the task and the army left the woman there to die.

Four months later, Edward escaped from the army during a direct battle with Ugandan government military. Edward was brought to World Vision to be treated medically and mentally. A few days after he was there, he spoke with a therapist about this "loyalty initiation."

Days later, a woman approached him from behind and said hello. This woman was the same woman that Edward had mutilated months before. She had somehow crawled to a main road a mile from where the army abandoned her and she was picked up hours later and brought to World Vision. When she told him this, Edward burst into tears. The woman looked at him and told him not to cry. She was alive and recovering. She did not blame him and was not at all angry with him for what he did. She forgave him immediately after the event occurred, and now hoped that he could forgive himself.

Days after that encounter, Edward tried to escape World Vision, and his life, by jumping off the retaining wall. During the next few months he attempted suicide three more times.

When I met Edward in 2010, he had been living at World Vision for two years. He was not able to leave the center because he was believed to be a danger to himself.

James' Story

Over the years, news crews have brought attention to the tragedy happening in Uganda and have asked victims to recount their story for the world to read.

James is a school teacher in one of the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the outskirts of Gulu. He was asked to narrate his story under a different name for safety purposes.

My name is Kilambus Charles. I come from Gulu district, which is found in northern Uganda. This district has been affected by the continuing civil war that has made great impact on the people living in the region.

I was abducted by rebels together with my wife in the middle of 2003 and stayed with them for 3 months.

It was around 9:00 p.m. and I was asleep in my room. Suddenly we were surrounded by rebels and I heard a kick at the door and was ordered to open it. Two rebels forced their way inside my room and tied my arms behind my back using my shirt. They looted my clothes, mobile phone, camera, bed sheet and many other things including the original of my exam certificate. They ordered my wife to carry all those properties and bring them out while the other rebels were busy looting properties from my mother's and brother's house.

They took us to join about 70 other people who had been rounded up. I was tied around the waist with one person and they put my wife close to me and ordered me to take care of her. If she escaped, I would be killed.

They took us to the next village and put us there while other rebels went back to collect food that was given to us and carried it with them. We walked a distance of 50 kilometers that night without resting and carrying bean seeds of 75 kg. Those who were unable to carry such weight were killed.

On our way, two of the former rebels whose feet were swollen and the skin was peeling off were killed and they told us that the same thing may happen to any one who could not walk.

We were going towards Sudan straight away. We walked for four days without eating anything and with the heavy load. I got tired and my feet started to swell and peel off as a result of walking a long distance. I was weak already. Life was terrible.

The rebel commander ordered that we had to increase the speed of walking because the Ugandan army, UPDF, was following us. But I couldn't walk. So I was beaten seriously and they ordered me to run quickly if I didn't want to be killed. So I had to do it. During the process of beating, I was given dislocation in the bone and seriously injured in my body.

When we entered in the camp, we were welcomed by other rebels. In the morning the rebel commander ordered us in line. They started selecting young girls who were 10 to 15 years old to be the rebel's wives, which is a violation of children's rights and at the same time is child abuse. Those who were not beautiful or had problems in their legs or body so that they could not manage what ever was needed, must be killed and they did it. Now, with those serious killings we found it normal. Staying with them, I started learning from them how the rebels behave compared to home. But there was no way I could escape.

Once day around 10:00 am we were attacked by an army helicopter gunship. We continued moving and taking cover in the tall grass and under trees. The rebel commander ordered killed people who were dressed in white and red since those colors would eaisily be seen by the soldiers in the helicopter. Two of the abducted girls were killed there and then. I had on white shorts and a green t-shirt. I feared I was the next person to be killed. But I was ordered to remove the shorts and remain half naked. I had to walk like that in the tall grass until we arrested some civilians who had a good pair of trousers.

This is how I escaped from the rebels: One day I was chosen to be among the 150 people to participate in a battle with army soldiers. When we met with those soldiers and the battle was terrible, I was among the 30 abduted who luckily narrowly escaped death."

7. The War in Northern Uganda Examined

I am going to use the city of Gulu to represent the entire northern region of Uganda. Gulu was the epicenter for the terror that was inflicted upon the people of Uganda by Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army beginning in 1987 and continuing until 2007, though there is still a threat today as Kony and the LRA have only moved one country over to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Uganda

Kony began his reign of terror, taking over for Alice Lakwena when her efforts were thwarted during an attack in southern Uganda, claiming he was possessed by the Spirit of God and instructed to overthrow the government with the help of the Acholi people (the main inhabitants of Gulu).

To accomplish this governmental overhaul, Kony recruited people who believed in him to build up his army. Without much luck in recruiting people to "the cause," Kony and his comrades took to kidnapping children and pillaging towns and villages. The LRA is most infamously known for ravaging northern Uganda and creating such an extreme fear in the people, that they were forced into Internally Displaced Peoples camps.

These camps were eventually created by the government in an effort to protect the people. They erected temporary hut dwellings for multiple families to live in. At one time there were an estimated 2 million people living in the displacement camps. There were a few government sanctioned soldiers guarding the camps, but, when night fell, it didn't really matter. Soldiers abandoned their posts and the camps were left vulnerable.

Internally Displaced Peoples Camp

Kony's army was very strategic about their recruitment. Adults were hard to control, so they were killed or mercilessly beaten. Children could be kidnapped with great ease and brainwashed into compliance. Children were also in abundance and easily replaceable. Machetes were a popular tool among soldiers and were easily wielded by small children.

The Lord's Resistance Army's tactic was to ambush villages or camps, pillage homes, kill or severely maim adults and kidnap the young children for soldiers or wives. Girls were taken to "please" the high ranking officers.

Temporary camp dwellings people were forced to live in

To avoid being abducted, kids became "night commuters." As the sun went down, they would walk from their small villages or displacement camps into the big cities to sleep. Cities were safer because there was a more consistent military presence and the rebel army was less incline to attack. The night commuters would sleep under store awnings or in alley ways. When morning came, the children would commute back to their homes, hopeful to find their parents safe.

The founders of the organization Invisible Children created an informational video about the terror that struck the area and it bled into the hearts of thousands of Americans. The video focused on the children night commuters that were effected by the war.

Kidnap victim. He escaped and is now receiving medical care and therapy.

This went on for years. Children weren't able to go to school because of the need to commute and the poor conditions in the camps. Millions lived in fear for their lives with each passing day. The Ugandan government did what they could to keep the people safe, but even that effort was not enough to destroy Kony and his army.

I have heard horror stories about the intimidation that the army utilized to manipulate these innocent children into doing their bidding. Stories of children being forced to kill their own parents to show loyalty or forced to kill or maim another kid to save their own life are common. Kony is featured on Forbes' list of The World's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. He is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes among other charges.

While Kony and the rebel army have fled Uganda, they are still rampant in parts of Sudan and especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo. How many more people need to suffer and die before we, as brothers and sisters of these victims, realize the change that needs to be made?

6. The Nodding Disease Epidemic

When the average person thinks about prevalent diseases in Africa, the top three choices are malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. If we magnify just Central Africa, these same diseases would prevail. But what about a disease with no known cause? And no official name? And the fact that it only affects small children in Uganda and Sudan?

Have you heard of it? It is informally known as "nodding disease." I had never heard of it either.

Nodding symptoms date back into the 1960's in Sudan and more recent years in northern Uganda. Areas of Tanzania have also reported similar symptoms but there is still speculation about a connection.

Nodding disease affects children ages 5-15. It is a brain disease that starts with an involuntary nodding of the head (similar to dozing off) and develops into severe seizures, stunted growth and extreme mental retardation.

Kids who look like they are 5 or maybe 6-years-old, are actually 12 or 13. These children are losing their adolescence. A child who is supposed to be in school or kicking a ball with friends is tethered to his house so he doesn't wander off. Because they do not fit "social norms," some children with nodding symptoms are considered dangerous and scary. The mental retardation that develops is so severe that they are kicked out of schools and parents are forced to spend every minute watching a child to prevent their death.

A growing number of these children have been dying because of a lack of supervision. Falling into fires and walking into traffic are common causes of death, as well as parents abandoning children on the road side when symptoms first appear. With the poor conditions that families already live in, some parents find no other option than to relieve themselves of the burden of a sick child.

There is no known cause. There is no effective cure. Members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have been tirelessly researching nodding disease and have yet to come up with more than basic theories about the origin. Some theories include post-traumatic stress disorder (from the horrific events in northern Uganda and Sudan initiated by Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army), vitamin deficiencies or malnutrition and rampant genetic disorders. Each theory brings about questions of validity. Why aren't these symptoms arising in other African countries ravaged by war? Why is it only in Uganda and parts of Sudan that malnutrition would cause this disease?

Research continues steadily, but there is an issue with funding and where resources will come from in the future.

Unfortunately, if this disease appeared in America, there would be no end to the funding that is given. With all the money that the world spends on military each year ($780 billion US), protecting ourselves from each other, imagine how many children could possibly be cured of nodding disease. Or given a better life situation ... one where they aren't tethered to their home for days on end.