Invisible Children

     Invisible Children is an organization founded after three young filmmakers took a trip to northern Uganda in 2003 and witnessed the effects of the atrocities occurring there. Children were being abducted and forced to become soldiers for the LRA, the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA is led by Joseph Kony and travels throughout these remote nations in search of villages that they can exploit and strengthen their force through the use of child soldiers. Literally, children are taken from their homes in the middle of the night and forced to handle weapons and commit terrible actions. For the last 23 years the LRA and the government of Uganda have been waging a war in which nearly two million innocent people have been caught in the middle of violence and international crime, their families and villages being torn apart by murderous thugs. The LRA for the most part has left Uganda due to the increased awareness and support of Invisible Children but has gone on to other nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Sudan.

     The LRA was formed from what was known as the Holy Spirit Movement. A woman named Alice Lakwena believed the Holy Spirit had spoken to her and ordered her to overthrow the Ugandan government for treating her people unjustly. The movement gained support but Lakwena was exiled and Joseph Kony, a supposed cousin of Lakwena, took over leadership by forming the LRA. The LRA did not receive nearly the same amount of support that the Holy Spirit Movement did which motivated Kony to abduct children in order to form his army. The LRA has abducted an estimated 66,000 children and displace well over two million innocent people during his reign of terror.



Children soldiers in Uganda

     Invisible Children, through increasing awareness about this issue and the raising of funds, have greatly changed the situation in Uganda. After their trip to Uganda in 2003, the founders of Invisible Children made a documentary in which they explained and gained support for their cause. Volunteers and activists tour their film all over the United States and have been well received by their audience. Largely unreported by the media, Kony’s atrocities have been ignored for far too long and Invisible Children is trying to stop that. They have through the funds risen, provided many of these remote villages with radios so that they can contact one another and warn each other of the LRA’s presence. This along with efforts in education and the long term development of war torn areas has already shown significant improvement for Ugandans.