Screenings inspire action for Ugandans displaced

Polaroid images of children’s faces disappearing
into black highlight the beginning of the documentary
“Sunday – The Story of a Displaced Child.”

Before illuminating the plight of the displaced children
of Uganda, the film displays a quote by geographer
George Kimble across the screen: “The darkest thing
about Africa has always been our ignorance of it.”

The documentary was screened Tuesday in an event
organized by the VCU Invisible Children Club and the
national Invisible Children’s Movement Department.

The “Sunday” documentary tells the story of 15-
year-old Okello Sunday, who lives in a displacement
camp in northern Uganda, and features filmmaker
Bobby Bailey as its narrator.

“A camera can’t do justice to the abandonment of
the internally displaced,” Bailey says in the film as he
describes the turmoil that still racks Uganda.

The people of Uganda have been terrorized for more
than 20 years by the Lord’s Resistance Army-one of
Uganda’s two main rebel groups, Bailey says. The people
were given 48 hours to leave their homes and, after
that time, were forced into displacement camps.

To realize the extent of the Ugandans’ plight, Bailey
and three others went to the town of Pader in northern
Uganda, where they were displaced for 10 days.

The group lived as the displaced had been living
for 10 years-with a single set of clothes a week, no
toothbrushes or Colgate, no socks and no shoes. The
four allowed themselves one amenity-toilet paper.

After Bailey met Sunday, the 15-year-old showed
Bailey where he works the fields to afford his school
tuition.

“He had to work the land to pay for school activities,”
Bailey says in the film, stating that Sunday wants to
become a doctor. “Many people don’t venture out of
the land for fear of being abducted, but Sunday has
no choice.

“The more I talked to Sunday, the more I realized
every part of his life (was) affected with this war,”
Bailey says.

The documentary records Sunday asking Bailey if
the people in America would care about the situation
in Uganda.

“They should know more about our suffering,”
Sunday says.

Sunday’s story is only a segment of the documentary
“Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” which was created in
2003 by filmmakers and Invisible Children founders
Bailey, Jason Russell and Laren Poole.

Tuesday’s screening was just one in a lengthy
series organized by the Invisible Children’s Movement
Department for the national corporation’s Spring Tour
2008.

Jennifer Welsch, a Mary Washington graduate and
one of three roadies who came to VCU as part of the
Invisible Children’s Spring Tour 2008, said watching
the “Sunday” film for the first time made her want to
take action.

“I know I needed to do something about it afterwards,”
Welsch said.

Welsch is not the only person the documentaries
have inspired into action.

Sarah Knowlton, president and founder of the
year-old VCU Invisible Children Club, said the
people featured in the “Rough Cut” DVD captured
her heart.

“I didn’t feel like there was a choice to be made about
whether or not I should do something,” Knowlton
stated in an e-mail. “It wasn’t about charity; it was
about loving these people that I had never met and
(about) using my resources to help them.”

For the VCU club, three goals propel every screening,
event and meeting the club plans, Knowlton stated.
These goals are to give people knowledge about what is
happening internationally, to raise money for rebuilding
VCU’s partner school in northern Uganda and to
empower both VCU and the Richmond community
to make a difference.

The spring tour, which the national non-profit
launched in February, has Invisible Children roadies
primarily “visiting colleges and universities across the
States to encourage political action from this country’s
youngest advocates,” the Invisible Children Web site
stated.

Sophomore Caroline Sumner, an officer for VCU
Invisible Children, said the roadies travel in vans coast
to coast with all the equipment and merchandise they
need for the tour.

“Their job is to live like nomads for a few months,”
Sumner said.

The roadies, though unpaid throughout the tour,
hold film screenings to provide information about the
ongoing war in Uganda, about the internal-displacement
camps and about the people within those camps whose
lives have been changed irreversibly.

“It’s really cool because it’s largely youth-operated,”
Sumner said, defining “youth” as those of middleschool-
through-college age.

Shannon Episcopo, another roadie who attended
the VCU screening, said she’s seen how much the
“Sunday” documentary has changed her.
“If you’re anything like me . it will change your
heart.”

According to Knowlton – after having only two-days
notice – more than 85 people attended Tuesday’s
screening.

“We had a lot of people come up to talk to us
afterwards wanting to get more involved and sharing
ideas with us,” Knowlton stated.

Welsch said as the Invisible Children roadies tour
the United States, they learn and pass on creative ideas
for fundraising and raising awareness.
“When we go to other schools to tell them about
creative ideas, about half of those ideas come from
VCU,” Welsch said.

A short film titled “Invest in Peace” was shown after
the “Sunday” documentary. The film emphasized letter
writing puts pressure on the U.S. government to make
a difference on the international scene.

“Every letter written to a congressman or senator
by law has to be read by someone in the office and
reported to that congressman,” Welsch said, with a
call to give time, talent or resources.

“Wherever your heart leads you to go, if this
inspires you to do it, that’s success in our eyes,”
Welsch said.

As “Invest in Peace” states, “What will our generation
be known as if we sacrifice for peace?”

—

Keep an eye on the news

Invisible Children roadie
Dave Hong, who attended
the “Sunday” documentary
screening at VCU, said peace
talks began in June 2006 that
brought the war-torn nation of
Uganda closer to peace than it’s
been in the past decade.
This Friday, rebel leader Joseph
Kony is supposed to be signing
an agreement that would
confirm the Civil War in Uganda
has officially ended.
If that happens, the real work
will begin, Hong said.