Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Invisible Children

In Northern Uganda, around the region of Gulu, there was a woman named Alice. Alice became possessed by a demon and taught that the government was not needed. After her death some of her followers began an organization called the "Lord's Resistance Army."

The LRA needed troops (otherwise there would be no army) and began to abduct children. Today, 17 years later, there have been 200,000 children abducted and brain-washed to fight and kill. Those who had refused were beaten, and if they continued to refuse then they were brutally slaughtered. 6,000 have been killed.

Many of the children have fled their homes to escape abduction. They live in displacement camps or under hospitals or any other semi-safe area in a nearby city. Their only possessions are the shirts on their backs and some have a blanket or sheet. They get one meal a day. When night draws near there is a mad scramble to the semi-safe areas to get some space; there is usually not room for all and they need to avoid the rebels(LRA) and find some where else to hide.

Those who were brain-washed and then escape are not healthy, many are mentally retarded, some crave to see blood etc. It is a very sad thing. Why do I tell you this? Because at the end of the documentary, Invisible Children, one child said, "I pray to God, that the Government of America help us." The link will lead you to any information you may need to help.

Now, some people I know will use this against the war on Iraq, why should we spend so much money on Iraq when these horrors are occurring? The situation in Iraq was equally if not more horrifying. I know this because of a book called "The Threatening Storm." The book talks about all the chemical weapons and their ready-to-make factories and all the completely horrifying and barbaric acts that Saddam Hussein committed against his own people. This is an evil subject but the ignorance of it around the world is shocking and this news needs to be spread, so here's one of my contributions.

3 comments:

Suzanne said...

Thank you for sharing this with us, James. I have heard nothing at all about this. Is the Catholic Church helping this situation at all through Catholic Relief Services, by any chance? I could go to their site and see about that. I also will look into the book that you mention about Iraq. What age do you think would be appropriate to read this book? I have a son who is 13 but I think he might be a little young. My husband may look into it also. Thankyou again...

Suzanne said...

James, I did go to the CRS site and looked up Uganda. There I located an article about this and I will be sure to contribute something soon. I trust CRS very much. Thank you once again for opening our eyes! God be with you.

James Bogdan said...

Thank you Suzanne for your comments, I never actually read the book (my mom read me passages) because she thought the images were so horrific. That was two years ago; I was your kid's age, but it is your call. Thank you for contributing to the cause.