Youth Rally for Africa's 'Invisible Children' at the Rescue in Harrisburg

Residents of Harrisburg and surrounding areas rallied at the Harrisburg Capitol building today in support an Invisible Children event called "The Rescue." The event sought to create awareness for the violence occurring in Uganda.

The Invisible Children movement and "The Rescue" are aimed at rescuing hundreds of children who have been abducted to serve as soldiers in Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA, a sectarian guerilla army in Uganda, has been fighting against the Ugandan government since its creation in 1987. This war is one of the longest in Africa's history.

Invisible Children first raised awareness of Kony and the LRA's use of children soldiers in 2003 when three young men traveled to the Sudan region and filmed their experiences. Instead of a youthful adventure, however, the three young men stumbled upon the story of the Northern Ugandan children being abducted and forced to serve in the LRA. Since the film's first airing in 2004, the Invisible Children movement has become a leading proponent for raising awareness of the situation in Uganda.

Andrew Shiraki, who served as Harrisburg's city organizer for the event, became involved with Invisible Children in high school.

"I've been promoting the film and showing it, and playing benefit concerts for probably going on four years," Shiraki said. "We'd really like to call attention to the conflict that's still going on. For some reason people are still choosing to be ignorant of the war that's going on in Uganda."

A youth group leader from Oregon Hill Grace Chapel, Deanne, came to the Harrisburg rally to show her support for this cause.

"We've been following the Invisible Children . .. for a couple of years now," she said. "We just want to raise awareness, because we feel like this shouldn't be continuing on."

Those who rallied in the Rescue event in Harrisburg began the event by walking for over an hour and a half from their decided starting points to the Capitol building. Once they arrived, participants set up a mock LRA camp. They brought extra clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, and other supplies to camp out on the Capitol steps. The eighty-plus participants who rallied in Harrisburg joined a global effort to raise awareness of the situation in Uganda and help rescue Joseph Kony's abducted child soldiers.

A Messiah College junior, Haddie, said she was made aware of The Rescue by her sister.

"She called me and said . . . check it out and see if they have anything near you, and I did," Haddie said. Haddie visited the Invisible Children website, where she learned more about the Harrisburg rally.

"It's really cool to have all of us come together for this cause," she said of the Rescue rally.

A freshman at Bloomsburg University, Rich, first became aware of and involved with Invisible Children in high school.

"At our school we have Amnesty International [ a non-profit organization ], and part of it is Invisible Children," Rich said. "I came here today to help end one of the longest wars in Africa. What's going on over there, it's not right. You feel like you have to do something, because we're sitting over here [in America] living comfortably, and there's people over there struggling every day."

Throughout the night-long event, participants will be "held hostage" at their respective LRA camps until five symbolic flags are raised representing their "rescue." A red flag will represent raising awareness by getting representatives from the media to show up at the event. A purple flag will be raised when one or more cultural gatekeepers-what event organizers called "moguls"-arrive and make statements on behalf of the child soldiers. A white flag represents the letters participants will write to local politicians, as well as art projects to be made during the evening. A black flag represents getting participants to sign up to serve as ambassadors at the follow up activity, Lobby Days, in Washington DC on June 22 and 23. Finally, a green flag represents the donations raised-a goal of five dollars per participant-throughout the event.

"We want the gatekeepers of society, people with real influence whether they're celebrities or politicians . . . to recognize that this is an issue that's important to the youth, and all of America," Shiraki said. "And not just America but all the other countries participating in this event as well. We want to be rescued."

Participants were asked to bring two pictures of themselves with friends and family as part of their registration. Each participant was to circle his or herself as a representation of their abduction and their symbolic separation from their loved ones. These pictures will be sent to local elected officials along with letters written by participants during the night to encourage those officials to pledge their support to the Rescue cause.

Participants will stay at the Capitol building until they are able to raise all five flags. While many media representatives were present, participants were still waiting for a mogul to come and make a statement. Several local gatekeepers, including Harrisburg's mayor Stephen Reed, were contacted. The event is set to continue until at least eight o'clock on the morning of Sunday, April 26.

Sources

The Rescue, The Invisible Children: The Rescue Website, Invisible Children

Invisible Children, Invisible Children Website, Invisible Children