The RESCUE

Did you know that to this very day there is a war waging on Northern Uganda? This was has gone unnoticed for the Western countries for too long – a war that is still continuing after 23 years of unthinkable horrors that leave the residents of this country wounded, living in fear from day to day.. thousands of children have been abducted from their homes as they lay to sleep and forced to become child soldiers, as young as at the age of 5. These children are forced to commit the most horrific assaults, terrorizing their own communities by killing and torturing. All this is taking place because of one man – Joseph Kony. This man has destroyed the lives of millions of people living in Uganda and the surrounding countries.. Can you believe this really is happening in the 21st century right under our noses without any action of justice being taken??



Three young american men were on a holiday in Uganda six years ago when they discovered the injustice and terror that was taking place. These guys were just average kids but they have become fighters for justice for Northern Uganda, rising awareness of the problem in America. They have established the organization called ”Invisible Children” that started from the film they made on their holiday – and they carry on to this day, fighting to bring justice and end the war in Uganda.

It is about a time the Western countries wake up from their ignorant sleep to come alongside to fight for peace and justice for this war torn country! Please visit the website www.invisiblechildren.com, for more detailed story and ways to get involved in saving Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers! You can watch a 30 minute short video to hear the story and see to yourself the horror that is taking part in our world today. (On the website, click ”the rescue site” and choose ”english → enter site”. Click on ”watch the video” and prepare yourself to see things you could have imagined people would have to go through in today's modern world...)



So Invisible Children organized a overnight rally called ”The Rescue” last Saturday 25th of April on 100 cities around the world in 10 countries. I was priviledged to take part in this event to raise awareness to the problem right here in Sydney.

The event started by a march from Milson's point to Botanic Gardens, over the Harbour Bridge. Thousands of young people walked across the bridge holding unto a rope, ”abducted” and removed from their families to the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army – Joseph Kony's army) camp. The idea of the whole event was to ”abduct yourself” and represent one child abducted in Uganda.

The main part of the event took place in the Botanic Gardens at Flinton's steps with a breat taking background of the harbour, Opera House and Harbour Bridge as the scene for this! There we camped out to film the event and the masses of young people coming together to demand justice and involvement of the government of this country in ending the war. We had a lot of fun alongside – group singing, dancing, mingling aound and meeting new people – but most importantly, we wrote thousands of letters to the governmental organs pleading for their involvement.

As we waited in the ”LRA camp”, we were waiting for both the media to come and broadcast the problem to the whole nation, as well as waiting for our ”rescuer” to come and rescue us – a person of great influence such as a governmental official or a celebrity. We were rescued later on by one of the well known actors in Australia, Damien Walsh Howling as he showed up on the site and declared that he'd use his voice in the media to raise awareness to this problem.

As people wrote letters we also made a collase in the share of New Sout Wales of the family pictures that people had brought with them, circling the ”abducted” on the photos to give face to the voices, which would make it a lot harder to ignore and was pressing the poin – is their life as valuable as mine?

We were not so successful with the media – all the major medias promised to be there but did not show up regardless of the phonecalls made to them during the night. This only proves to us how hard it is to make people aware of such injustice in our Western world.

For the night we changed city and gathered next to Hyde Park to sleep outside. It was a lot of fun- we played games and got to know each other a little better, and then we all laid down in our sleeping bags on top of each other to keep warm. Believe me or not but the nights here are freezing already! However, we did not care of the cost which was nothing compared to what the children in Uganda live through everyday.

Early in the morning, at 6am Channel 7 finally showed up to film us – too bad most of the people were fast asleep at this time!

So we marched to stand outside Channel 7's studio's glass windows during their 3 hour morning news flash show ”Weekend Sunrise”, hoping to be given a few minutes in the show to share the issue. I had to leave before this took place since I was serving at morning church, and even we felt a little defeated with out media success it is encouraging to know that there are 100 cities doing the sae, and the world cannot ignore close to 100 000 people standing up to say
”WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH – STOP THE WAR!”