Tonight is the global night commute to raise awareness about the situation of the invisible children in Uganda. 1.8 million people have been forcibly displaced during the twenty year long war. About a thousand people die every week due to the war itself and conditions in the resettlement camps (starvation and preventable diseases.) It’s difficult to estimate, but at least 20,000 child soldiers as young as five and six years old have been forced to fight in the rebel armies, probably more like 50,000. Tens of thousands of children commute nightly to protect themselves from being abducted from their own homes to fight. The situation there is as grave (some say moreso) as that in the Darfur region. If you haven’t heard about this, buy the DVD or just google.
UPDATE: You can see the dvd here. My sister reported that though less than twenty had signed up beforehand, 160 people showed up to the Global Night Commute in her small college town and about half of them spent the night, even thought it was in the middle of exams.
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Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
Our campus fellowship showed the DVD in our weekly meeting yesterday. It was very enlightening. We’re already planning our next big international trip in a couple years, most likely to Africa or southeast asia. We’ll see if some opportunities might not open in that region to do some work.
Thanks for posting about this. I was unable to attend tonight due to a cold and the fact that it was raining here. However, I’ve been volunteering for a while. Thanks for educating your readers!