by Morgan Sanders
I’m sure you have heard about the Kony 2012 video on Facebook or Twitter. If not, Kony 2012 is a video about a warlord named Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and their actions in central Africa.
The video brings light to the subject and shows how The Invisible Children plans to “make him famous”. The video’s goal is to raise awareness. After being posted to Youtube, the video had over 70 million views in just seven days.
The LRA has been kidnapping children for over 26 years and making them into sex slaves and child soldiers. They have kidnapped over 30,000 children.
In the video it mainly shows the violence happening in Uganda, but it is also happening in Sudan and Congo. Kony has made his way to the top of the International Crime Councils list for most wanted criminal.
Invisible Children was created in 2003 after three filmmakers went to Africa looking for a story. After returning from their trip and people viewing their footage, people wanted to help and created the organization.
They first started working in Uganda in 2005. In Uganda, Invisible Children works with locals to develop programs where there are needed on the ground. Their mission is to use film, creativity and social attention to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity.
This campaign has been called Kony 2012 because it is a time sensitive mission. Right now, the United States has 100 troops stationed in Africa helping them with the repairs of the damage of the LRA.
At Montezuma, students and teachers are interested after watching the video and want to make a change. In Miss Farrington’s current issues class, students are writing letters to policymakers about how they feel about the subject. In the video, it states that in order to raise awareness they are involving 12 policymakers and 20 celebrities to raise awareness.
After watching the video, my personal reaction was that I wanted to do something to stop Kony. I believe this is the reaction most people have after viewing it.
There are many things you can do to raise awareness; you can order the action kit, sign a pledge, donate money and repost the video to Facebook.
I ordered an action kit as my contribution. Many people have supported the cause, but I have also heard a lot of criticism about Kony 2012 and what Invisible Children really is. This is not anything the government has started; it was started by a nonprofit organization to raise awareness and to raise funds to help stop it and help the victims recover.
If you have any questions or want to learn visit www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html and www.kony2012.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment