Films show children's battles in guerilla war

The worldwide non-profit organization Invisible Children has reached the UNM campus.
In early 2003, three young filmmakers from southern California embarked on a journey to Africa in search of a story they could share with the world.

When Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole reached Uganda, they learned of an epic tragedy that shocked them and motivated them to make several documentaries displaying the hardships faced by Ugandans.

The documentaries expose the plight of northern Ugandan child soldiers in the hands of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army since 1989.

The documentaries had a powerful and inspiring impact on two UNM students, Carol Payne and Kristin Sandine, who created Invisible Children UNM this semester.
The Invisible Children UNM group had a free viewing of two of the documentary films, “The Rescue of Joseph Kony’s Child Soldiers” and “Together We Are,” on Monday in the SUB Movie Theater.

Payne, vice president of Invisible Children UNM, said the organization aims at grassroots activism to fix a problem thousands of miles away.

“We’re here to spread the word and to tell people that we care,” Payne said. “This non-profit organization has inspired me way more than any other program. It’s just because it’s real people doing real things. It’s also people doing things that you can see and feel.”

The LRA is a guerrilla army that’s been abducting boys from Uganda, southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the documentaries. The children are forced to fight the Ugandan government’s forces against their will.

Adam Palumbo leads a group of full-time Invisible Children employees who travel to schools around the U.S. promoting the documentaries and the call to bring Kony to justice.

Palumbo is a regional manager for three of 15 teams that speak to high schools and universities about their cause.

“This is the first tour that we have had all 50 states covered as well as almost every province in Canada,” Palumbo said. “A majority of my time I spend in the main office in San Diego. I am the main point of communication for all the teams and every couple of weeks I spend time out of the office with the teams, like I am with Mountain West team now.”

There are several ways to get involved with Invisible Children, including the Tri Campaign, which asks for a $12 monthly donation.