StarBulletin.com

Making the invisible visible


By

POSTED: Monday, November 03, 2008

The projection of Ugandan children flickered across the white wall as the students leaned forward to watch true stories of Ugandan high school students affected by civil war. The movie was created by Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money to help rebuild schools in Uganda.

For the past 17 years, a civil war between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels has torn the country apart, spreading destruction, uprooting families, and disrupting the lives of everyday Ugandan citizens. The Invisible Children were represented by three volunteers: Willie, Timmy and Desiree.

One volunteer, “;Willie”; Randall Chase, had been working with Invisible Children for only six weeks when he came to talk to the Priory. He had recently left his job as a remedial-course teacher at UCLA. When he first heard about this program he was hesitant to join the cause.

“;I cared but I didn't respond. I knew there were starving kids in Africa, but I just thought 'whatever.' I'd been so calloused and kind of apathetic for so long,”; Chase said.

The idea of giving up six months without pay to travel around the country in a van is not exactly appealing to most people. However, thousands of people, especially college and high school students, have stepped up to raise money and spread awareness about this horrible violation of human rights.

The effort found a particularly fertile and sympathetic audience at the Priory: The Invisible Children representatives completely sold out their DVDs and bracelets, which they had brought to supply their entire two-week tour of Hawaii schools.

It was obvious that the movies Priory students watched in their classes, as well as during the assembly, had deeply touched the girls' hearts, and they were eager to help out. Only a few days after the Invisible Children presentation, several students had already established a “;Schools for Schools”; fundraising club at the Priory. To date, the Priory Ohana has donated more than $1,600.