Invisible Children Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007)

The Invisible Children logo.

Invisible Children Inc. is an organization founded by filmmakers Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole from San Diego, California, USA.^[1] Their goal is to create awareness regarding the plight of the people of Northern Uganda, caught in the midst of a civil war between the government and Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that makes extensive use of kidnapping children and making child soldiers.^[2] Invisible Children Inc. was started after the founders had created a documentary film on the subject, also called Invisible Children: Rough Cut. The organization was started in an attempt to give people a way to easily help with the situation in Northern Uganda, after viewing the film.^[3]

The volunteers have been holding showings of the film at various educational and cultural centers, mostly high schools and colleges. The campaign has been centered around raising public awareness in the U.S. in an attempt to spur youth into action and to change the current policies of both the American and Ugandan governments, who have largely let the conflict fester.^[4] Their means for achieving this included the Global Night Commute which took place on April 29, 2006. Youths from around the world converged on urban centers in solidarity with displaced Ugandan children attempting to avoid capture by the LRA, as is prominently displayed in the film. The success of the Global Night Commute inspired another event, Displace Me. Another program run by Invisible Children Inc. is Schools for Schools.^[5]

Invisible Children Inc. is also responsible for raising significant sums of money which go toward a number of programs they have developed in Acholiland. These programs largely focus on education of war-affected youth in Northern Uganda.^[6]

Invisible Children Inc. was publicized in an episode of Veronica Mars (one of the stars, Ryan Hansen, is involved in the Invisible Children Campaign), titled "I Know What You'll Do Next Summer'". The episode centered around a former child soldier in the Lords Resistance Army, who managed to escape to the US and was trying to find his father, whom he had never met.^[7]

The organization has also received support from various bands, like Thrice, Relient K, Switchfoot, My Chemical Romance, Circa Survive, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, K Dub Shine and NFL Green Bay Packers linebacker Brady Poppinga, as well as a three part story of Moonstone Books' US comic book The Phantom, written by Mike Bullock, in 2007.