President Obama references the mission to stop the LRA

President Obama referenced the mission to stop the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday. This is a big sign that things are going well.

“And when I decide to stand up for foreign aid, or prevent atrocities in places like Uganda, or take on issues like human trafficking, it’s not just about strengthening alliances, or promoting democratic values, or projecting American leadership around the world, although it does all those things and it will make us safer and more secure. It’s also about the biblical call to care for the least of these — for the poor; for those at the margins of our society.”

Read the full transcript of President Obama’s speech here via The Washington Post.

Mend: Saying “No” to Gender Based Violence

There’s more happening at Mend than just making beautiful bags. Last month, the ladies participated in a training on Gender Based Violence (GBV), a topic that the staff social worker, Evelyn, said she noticed coming up frequently in conversations at the center.

Evelyn explained that cultural factors like “power distance” between men and women in Uganda can create a dependency that leaves women vulnerable to abuse in the home. In 2003, a World Health Organization study found that 70% of men and 90% of women surveyed in Uganda perceived wife beating as acceptable under some circumstances.

During the training, many of the seamstresses were able to rethink their misconceptions, and learn about the channels of support that are available to victims of GBV.

“The ladies were so excited and interested to learn the truth about GBV,” Evelyn said. “This training will help the women support their daughters, their sisters and also themselves.”

Trainings like this one are empowering the women at Mend to transform their homes and communities into places where women can stand up for their rights, and where abuse is no longer tolerated.

Washington Post article discusses international effort to bring Kony to justice

Washington Post published this article by writer Michael Gerson about Joseph Kony and the international effort to bring him to justice. The article discusses the status of military personnel, the myths that surround Kony, and the commitment to put a stop to this man, this war. Our upcoming campaign, KONY 2012, is centered around the mandatory need for Joseph Kony to be captured and held accountable for his decades of torture as the leader of the LRA. Michael Getson hits the nail on the head with this brilliant and heartbreakingly written article, and it goes hand-in-hand with everything that we are determined to see happen this year. Read the article [excerpted below] and may you get as pumped up as we are to launch KONY 2012 and bring the world’s worst war criminal to justice.

From The Washington Post:

The net tightens around Joseph Kony

By Michael Gerson, Published: January 26

DUNGU, Congo

Francoise, age 16, talks quietly, revealing a shy smile only after praise for her tight cornrows. While walking to school four years ago, she and some classmates were captured by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The girls were distributed to soldiers as “wives.” In the mornings, Francoise cooked. In the afternoons, she carried packs on the march. When she tried to escape, the soldiers melted a water container and poured the plastic on her shoulders. Once, when the fighters saw two infants along the path, they crushed them with a pestle. “I witnessed that,” she says.

She recalls seeing Joseph Kony “maybe once a year.” Kony is the leader of the LRA and perhaps the most hated and hunted man on earth. His followers, she explains, think that “he is a supernatural being. He has a power over them.”

Francoise describes a six-week walk to an LRA camp in a remote part of the neighboring Central African Republic (CAR). Then the sounds of an attacking plane and helicopter. In the chaos, she escaped, arriving home just before Christmas.

Her story is eyewitness confirmation of an important event. During the summer, Kony recalled his commanders to the CAR for his first major leadership meeting in two years. On Sept. 12, forces of Uganda’s military (known as the UPDF) scattered the LRA fighters. Kony survived and fled. But the net around him tightens.

The pursuit of the LRA ranges over 240,000 square miles of jungle terrain in three countries. According to officers at the Joint Intelligence and Operations Center in Dungu, there were more than 300 LRA attacks last year. Units operate in small bands both east and west of Dungu. But Kony is still thought to be in the CAR. Experts on the conflict speculate his current location to be somewhere west of the Chinko River, a few hours by helicopter from his pursuers’ nearest military outpost.

Read the full article here and see the shout-out Invisible Children gets for their strides with the LRA Crisis Tracker. And yes, that’s Ben Affleck in the photo.

-Krista

(Photo Credit: The Washington Post)

The Egyptian Revolution: one year later

In the year that has passed since 8 million Egyptians took to their streets rising against Mubarak, the changes they instigated have not proved satisfactory. Revolutionaries are not content with the pace of the Egyptian military’s institution of a civilian democracy and this leaves us looking with anticipation to the revolution’s anniversary. Aaron Ross’s article for Mother Jones looks at the issues that will be especially poignant tomorrow and the obstacles that still lie ahead.
-TM

(Photo by Emilio Morenatti)

Keeping an eye on South Sudan

Since the LRA has been known to make its presence known in South Sudan, we like to keep tabs on the happenings (and you should too).  And since South Sudan is a new(ish) country, we want it to succeed (and you should too).  There have been recent retaliatory attacks between ethnic groups in the region which has displaced tens of thousands of people.  This makes us sad (and you should be too).  -KM

From BBC:

South Sudan clashes: Dozens killed in Jonglei state

Gunmen have killed at least 51 people – mostly women and children – in the latest clashes in South Sudan’s troubled Jonglei state, regional governor Kuol Manyang has said.

At least 22 others were injured after attackers raided and burned the village of Duk Padiet, he added.

The wounded have been evacuated to Juba, the capital, he said.

A series of retaliatory attacks between ethnic groups in the region has displaced tens of thousands of people.

“We are expecting more to be injured because they ran to the villages last night,” Mr Manyang said.

Officials told AFP news agency the killings were carried out by the Murle group on ethnic Dinkas, as revenge for a deadly raid last month on the town of Pibor.

It is understood that some Dinkas accompanied some 6,000 Lou Nuer warriors who attacked Pibor.

The cycle of violence has lasted months and killed hundreds of people. It began as cattle raids but has spiralled out of control.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the attacks are getting increasingly violent and neither the government nor the United Nations peacekeepers seem capable of stopping them.

Officials point out that Jonglei is the size of Bangladesh and that it is impossible to protect every village.

Some of the reinforcements sent to the region have been deployed in Murle areas around Pibor but the revenge attacks are now happening in Dinka and Lou Nuer communities.

South Sudan, which gained independence last year, has declared Jonglei a national “disaster area”, while the UN has launched an emergency operation to help those affected by the fighting.

Bono’s surprise visit to Invisible Children’s Mend office in Gulu

Bono dropped in for a surprise visit at our Invisible Children Mend office in Gulu this week, accompanied by his wife and Renzo Rosso, the founder of clothing company Diesel. Not a bad entourage. Said IC Regional Ambassador for Central Africa Jolly Grace O. Andruvile of the photo: “Bono with his big heart at the Invisible Children Mend Centre. He said the girls at Mend were his boss.”

Not to mention, Bono serenaded Grace, one of our seamstresses, with a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”  Oh, what we wouldn’t give to have audio.

The Hopeful Continent

Over the past six decades, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African.  Optimism about Africa needs to be taken in fairly small doses though, for things are still exceedingly bleak in much of the continent. While most Africans live on less than two dollars a day, a fast-growing middle class (around 60 million Africans) have an income of $3,000 a year.  Economist.com has recently done an article about the how’s and why’s of the economic boom (see article here), with reasons varying from commodities, favorable demographics, manufacturing, and their new enthusiasm for technology.  And while Africa still needs deep reform, its progress is a positive reminder of the transformative power of growth, hope, and human will.

“Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.”
- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1845), Chapter 117

Here’s to hoping,
Krista

Curious Mountain Gorillas

An amazing chance encounter with a troop of wild mountain gorillas near the Bwindi National Park, Uganda. These gorillas are seemingly friendly – it almost makes me want to take one home as a pet.  Almost.  Scroll to 2:30 and see how helpful they are with hygiene.  Disclaimer: don’t try this at your local zoo.

Cross-border activism on the Lord’s Resistance Army

Sarah Katz-Lavigne is one of the newest members of the Invisible Children team. She has taken on the enormously important role of Project Coordinator in our Dungu office in DR Congo, and we are so lucky to have her. She’s intimately involved in the day-to-day of the HF radio network, the LRA Crisis Tracker, the construction/operation of the Rehabilitation Center, etc. She wrote this blog about a recent working-conference in Dungu regarding the LRA:

Late October was an exciting time for Dungu residents, both old and–like me–new. Human Rights Watch came to Dungu to organize a conference for activists and members of civil society from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Uganda to share experiences, knowledge, and activism tools for combating the Lord’s Resistance Army in the countries where they have been wreaking havoc.

Jolly Okot, Invisible Children’s newly-appointed Regional Ambassador (previously IC’s Country Director for Uganda) participated in the conference. As a representative of the Ugandan experience, Jolly was able to provide valuable insight into a context very different from the one in DRC, South Sudan, and CAR. In Uganda, one of the groups the LRA terrorized for many years was its own people, the Acholi. But that is not the case for LRA-affected residents of the other three countries. Additionally, the LRA is no longer active in Uganda, which, after many years of torment, is a post-conflict setting.

One insight that Jolly provided to the attendees of the conference was her wealth of experience and knowledge on Ugandans’ activism to push the government to take action on the LRA. Jolly emphasized the need for a broad coalition of actors to push for action, including cultural and religious leaders, and women. This resonated with the situation in DRC. In Dungu, the Commission Diocesaine Justice et Paix (The Justice and Peace Commission, or CDJP), IC’s local partner, has been instrumental in pushing the government to recognize the threat posed by the LRA, even holding marches to protest government inaction.

Another important message Jolly shared with her fellow conference participants was that the Acholi  people (the northern Uganda tribe that Joseph Kony himself comes from) suffered greatly from the LRA’s actions in Uganda. Rather than being seen as the attackers, she emphasized, the Acholi were very much victims themselves, just like the LRA’s victims from other groups. This was an important message, and one which sought to dispel any impression that the activities of the LRA are a conflict between the Acholi and the Zande people of DRC, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.

The conference was highly inspirational in that it gave civil society members and activists from four different countries the opportunity to share their experiences and to discuss best practices for activism on the LRA issue. The advocacy push from the conference was a strong message to President Barack Obama to do more to ensure that the LRA threat is defeated. While certainly an opportunity to share common grievances around the LRA, the conference became much more: a way forward.

-Sarah Katz-Lavigne

Uganda: Photo Friday

Invisible Children Uganda staff show their support for President Obama’s decision to send advisory troops to Uganda.