Africa Top 10: #2 - Invisible Children

Now might be a really good time to talk about Invisible Children, the American NGO with whom I am working here in Uganda. The longer I am a part of this organization, and the more I am familiarized with them, the more proud I am to be affiliated with them and the work that they do both at home in the States and here.

The group is young, founded a few years ago when three (then)-recent college grads decided to travel to Africa to “find an adventure” and put their new filmmaking degrees to the test. They met the night commuters and a woman named Jolly who opened their Coke bottles with her teeth and helped to tell the stories of the people in Northern Uganda. You can get the history of the organization on the website: www.invisiblechildren.com.

I have met with Jolly a number of times since my arrival in Gulu; in many ways she was the face of Northern Uganda in the original documentary, Invisible Children: The Rough Cut. She is now the Ugandan Country Director for the whole of Invisible Children. (IC is also the ONLY NGO in Gulu with a Ugandan, and not a muzungu, heading the Ugandan operations.)

Of the Invisible Children employees in Uganda, only 5 are international and the other 90 or so are Ugandan. The organization has genuine plans to place its programming into the hands of the Acoli people, and have said more than once that their ideal goal is “to put themselves out of a job.” The group also has exit strategies as final goals so they will know when it is time to pull themselves out of the country and give the responsibility

In the states, IC is mostly a media and funding based group. The original founders are still heavily involved with advocacy and making the nation aware of the situation in northern Uganda. A number of documentaries since The Rough Cut have been made, including the movies for the bracelet campaign tracing individual students, and The Rescue promoting the organization’s advocacy event held this past April. (April? May? Springtime.) One of the IC people here reminded us that even though Joseph Kony has moved out of Northern Uganda, he is still on the run, and there are still 10,000 Ugandan children who were abducted by the LRA who are unaccounted for.

Here in Uganda, however, is the real meat of the organization. IC has built latrines, water pumps and storage, and classroom blocks (there are three IC classroom buildings at Anaka alone) and has brought books, desks, chairs, and other materials to 11 Schools for Schools schools throughout Northern Uganda. Something HUGE that I appreciate about the organization’s involvement in providing “hardware” resources to these schools is that they are not merely donations. IC requires that each school put forth a small percentage of the materials IC is providing to guarantee their ownership and commitment to the program.

IC also sponsors several hundred students through their scholarship program, and in addition to paying school fees, provides each student with a Ugandan “mentor” who acts as a support and role model while the student works his or her way through school. The program works hard to select students who have the potential to be future leaders; these are students who have grown up not knowing peace, and they need the guidance to take the country in a peaceful direction.

In addition, IC does projects throughout the country with women’s groups, small-business start-up programs and micro-economic programs – all with the focus of long-term sustainability. IC is constantly trying to not only provide resources, but also skills that will empower Ugandans far beyond the organization’s involvement in the country.

This posting does not do any sort of justice to Invisible Children, but hopefully it at least clearly gets across the idea that I think very highly of the work that they do, and I am proud to be working with them this summer.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, and I’ll try to answer them. Otherwise, check out the website. Or just take my word for it that they’re awesome.