“We are human beings too,” said Jacob, a young Ugandan boy featured in the doc film Invisible Children: Rough Cut.

Invisible Children, a film about the Night Commuters - a roving band of children in Northern Uganda desperately trying to avoid being abducted and forced into war as child soldiers -  allowed me to witness and understand why a child, with no home who is constantly being hunted like an animal, would feel the need to exclaim his humanity. 

Photo by: Pierre Holtz

Jacob once was captured by the rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and was taken into the desert. Before he was able to escape, he witnessed the horror the LRA was causing. As a result the LRA was searching for Jacob by name and he knew that if abducted he would either be killed or taught to kill; those would be his only choices.
Still, his fear was not of death. Jacob said, “I have nothing…so it is better when you [LRA] kill us.” He feared life because he knew of the physical and emotional pain that he would have to endure if he was granted another day.

Jacob had lost hope.

When three young American filmmakers went to Africa searching for adventure and a story to tell, they had no idea that they were going to come across a tragedy of this magnitude. “Disgusted and inspired” they wanted to do more than document what they saw; so they started a social movement through their website: Invisible Children

Their film and interactive website is a perfect display of how we can help through the technology that we use everyday. Invisible Children’s website allows us to choose how we want help and lets us see how our contribution is working.

The international humanitarian community’s options for giving aid are no longer limited to traveling to the location to assist hands on or sending a donation via snail mail. Although these remain effective ways to offer support, new uses of Internet technology have given us a host of convenient methods to create lasting change.

On the Invisible Children website there is the option of donating towards peace recovery, rescuing child soldiers, funding a child scholarship or rebuilding schools. You can also shop in their online store and choose from a variety of items where 100% of the profit goes to helping the people in Uganda.

Another way they make it easy for us to contribute from the convenience of our computers are the online petitions that we can “sign” to influence policy makers and ensure that help is being offered at the governmental level.

Lastly, their website makes it easy to stay informed and spread the word. It has numerous blog posts that are updated daily including links to every social network that Invisible Children has a presence on.

You can follow Invisible Children on Twitter (ReTweet them and spread the word), become a fan on FaceBook where you will get updates regularly (add the updates to your status and keep your personal network informed) or you can become a friend on MySpace where you can view bulletins and clips of their films.

Your participation in these social media sites will not only grant you access to the global network supporting Invisible Children, it will expand your online community. This allows you to share ideas, resources and strategies to promote a safer world for children.

Now the question we ask ourselves isn’t ‘how can I help?’ The questions is ‘how am I going to help?’

By Miriam Welderufael

Related Resources

• Invisible Children: The Feature Film Teaser
• The “Night Commuters” Uganda’s Forgotten Children of War
• ChildVoice International