Over 100 students sat in the library auditorium as they watched the new movie by Invisible Children.
Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that helps children in central Africa, was on campus on March 1. “The Congo Tour” event screened Tony, a film that tells the story of boy who grew up in the war-torn country of Uganda.
Vic Pereyra, an Integrated Studies major with emphasis in Philosophy and Religious Studies, thought the movie was well done and very inspiring.
“It was really impactful,” Pereyra said. “It was professionally done and tied into emotions, but it wasn’t just emotions, but a call for action.”
Laren Poole, one of the three founders of Invisible Children, said in the movie, regarding the experience he had when he went to Uganda for the first time in 2003, “It ruined my life. It ruined it in the best way.”
For part of the presentation on this year’s tour, Collins Angwech, a woman from northern Uganda, shared her story of growing up in the devastation of her home country.
Uganda and other central African countries like Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan, are under attack by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. They kidnap young children from villages to fight in their army.
“We live in so much fear of abductions of the LRA,” Angwech said. According to her, many children in these countries are night commuters. At night they travel from their house to verandas, streets or wherever they can find to sleep so Kony and the LRA won’t find and capture them.
This tour was promoting new goals that the organization has to help the people in the remote villages of central Africa. The organization is working to build radio towers to help villages communicate with one another, create search and rescue teams to help find children kidnapped by the LRA and rehabilitation centers to treat rescued children.
Professor Michael Minch, the director of the Peace and Justice Studies program on campus, also spoke and encouraged students to do something to try to help change the world.
“I often have students say to me ‘What difference can I make?’ [Being involved] is something you can do,” Minch said.
The Peace and Justice Studies program sponsored the event. For more info on Invisible Children and how you can get involved, visit www.InvisibleChildren.com or the Peace and Justice Studies program at www.UVU.edu/peaceandjustice
