Who even cares

You may be asking yourself why do I need to care about the AIDS crisis, displaced children, starving civilians, poverty, and genocides that occur in Africa when you have enough problems on your own plate.  I get that everyone has trials and tribulations but can you even phantom having to deal with all of these problems all at once?  For most of the population in Africa the sad truth is that on a daily basis they deal with every single one of these problems.  Sometimes I think a lot of people in America often take their life for granted and blow little issues that they have to deal with into a huge catastrophe.  Our society has become very egocentric in the ways we deal with issues.  Often times, we will only do things that will benefit us in the long run.  I want our society to stop thinking this way and I want America to open their eyes and see the horrible conditions that Africa has to go through.  We take things for granted way too much and whine about the stupidest thing but in reality we should not even let it bother us because just 8,562 miles away people are dealing with much worse conditions.  I really think as a society we are capable of so much more than what we are actually doing now to change the world.  My intent for this blog was to get the word out about the horrible things going on in Africa.  When I read my blog comments I noticed a lot of people saying how they never heard of a certain issue I was talking about and it made me feel as if my purpose was met.  I want people to open their eyes and realize how fortunate they are and they should advocate and lend a helping hand for those who are not as fortunate. 

Invisible Children II

Last week I talked about the background of these “invisible children” and this week I want to tell you about horrific attacks and abductions that involve the LRA, so you can get a realistic view of this problem. 

ATTACKS:

·        In January of 1997, the LRA attacked a village called Lamwo, in Northern Uganda. They killed more than 400 and 100,000 people that were mostly children were either displaced or forced to fight in the LRA’s army. 

·        In June of 1998, it was estimated that 10,000 children were abducted in 1 year alone.

·        In May of 2002, the LRA attacked Eastern Sudan and killed 450 innocent people.  The LRA killed many of the civilians by forcing them to walk off a cliff.

·        In 2007, The UN reported that 2,000 people had been killed and 2,500 people had been abducted in a year alone, in Uganda.

·        On Christmas of 2008, the LRA went into a Catholic church called Faradje where many people were celebrating Christmas and massacred 189 people and abducted 120 children.  The next day the LRA attacked three other communities in Uganda killing 336 more innocent civilians. 

·        On December 28 of 2008, The LRA attacked a church in Doruma, Uganda.  LRA soldiers went into the church and began hacking people to death.  It is estimated that 45 people were killed but exact numbers where not know because the bodies were so badly damaged.

·        On September 21^st, 2009 3 aid relief members from COOPI were killed by LRA soldiers.

·        In February of 2011, a town of Bandangana feel victim to the LRA.  They went through the town damaging every house and sparing nothing.  A 14-year-old girl is reported to be still barely alive after being shot in the chest.  In all 8 people were killed and 30 abducted.  The saddest thing was there were aid agencies their but they evacuated because they felt as if they couldn’t do anything, and the residents were left to fend for themselves. 

·        In 2011, the LRA has intensified their attacks but more so in the Oriental province.  It is estimated that so far 35 people have been killed and 104 abducted.  If that is not enough 17,000 people are displaced from their homes in fear that they will be killed next. 

These are just some of the many attacks and abductions that are happening in Africa.  I would just like to point out that a lot of the LRA’s soldiers were abducted from their own homes and are forced to fight by joseph Kony.  Many of them don’t want to fight but are scared for their lives.  In one documentary I came across a little boy that use to be a solider in the LRA’s army was saying he was addicted to the sight of blood and if he didn’t see it for a day or so he would actually get headaches.  I seriously can’t even phantom this but the LRA’s officials literally brainwash the people they abduct and make them do horrible things. As I began to research this blog I was honestly dumbfounded because I didn’t know all of this was occurring.  It was shocking to me was that I have never heard about any of this on the news which is sad.  There are many things you can do to help this issue. There are many websites you can go on and donate money and I recommend invisiblechildren.com. You can buy products that children in Uganda make and the money received goes to that particular child. The biggest thing you can do however is just get the word out. 

I recomende everyone to watch this video, it is very powerful!

Invisible Children I

Have you ever had to commute at night to find a safe place to sleep, because your home is unsafe?  Have you ever been scared for your life and wonder if you will see your family again in the morning?  Have you ever had friend’s disappear at night and never to be heard from again? Today, I want to open your eyes to an issue which is still very much an issue today. This issue is the issue of Children Soldiers in Uganda, Africa.

It all started in 1988, when Alice Lakwena, a self proclaimed profit, said she received a message from the Holy Spirit that the Acholi people could defeat the government by using witchcraft practices.  Her practices prompted, Joseph Kony, to start a revolution in Uganda.  He told people he was a medium and it was rumored that he was possessed.  He had a lot of followers who practically worshiped him and later on became his solders in the revolution. Joseph would preach to his followers many weird things and one was that if they put a cross on their chest with oil it would protect them from bullets.  Joseph called his army the lord resistance army also commonly referred to as the LRA.  It may shock you but his army was considered a Christian militia.  He wanted to add more people to his army so that they could take over the Uganda government, however, not many people wanted to be involved in the war.  That is when he started to do the unthinkable, and take children from their homes at night.

Joesph Kony in the middle

The LRA would go from home to home at night and take children from their homes and force them to kill. Many times the LRA would take the children and make them kill their parents as initiation into the LRA’s army. Honestly can you even phantom this? It’s horrible enough they are forced against their will to fight but then they have to kill their parents! Overall 30,000 children have been abducted by Joseph Kony and his troops. In fear of being abducted, children would actually go into the town together and sleep in the open so that they wouldn’t be taken. Can you imagine that you can’t even sleep in your own bed because you might be taken captive? The thing that is most shocking for me is that this is still a problem in Uganda. There is currently a seize fire, but still many children go missing ever night. If this happened in America there would be an amber alert out and authorities’frantically searching for the child but it’s totally different on the other side of the world.