Sister Angélique named winner of prestigious Nansen Refugee Award
As we work tirelessly on our new #zeroLRA campaign to bring home every last abducted child soldier, woman, and fighter, we are happily sidetracked by exciting news. Our dear friend Sister Angélique Namaika has received the 2013 Nansen Refugee Award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since 1954, this prestigious award has been given annually […]
ϟ FLASH ALERT: How Opondo escaped the LRA after 15 years of captivity
June 21, 1998 LRA rebels raided Lamwolode, Uganda, and brutally kidnapped a ten-year-old boy named Opondo. He was stolen from his family, forced to kill innocent civilians, and brainwashed into believing that escape was impossible. March 2013 15 years later, while listening to an Invisible Children sponsored program on UBC Shortwave radio, Opondo overheard former […]
ICRC estimates that at least 10,000 people are still missing from northern Uganda
Often, when we think about Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) we think of those still held captive, those killed, and the nearly 440,000 who are currently displaced. Yet there’s another number that may surprise you. Camilla Matteucci, the protection coordinator at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that at […]
A different kind of TEDxTalk Tuesday // The Last Lecture
Today I’m breaking my own rules to bring you a video that looks like a TEDxTalk, sounds like a TEDxTalk, but isn’t actually a TEDxTalk. Ever since a group of us interns sat riveted watching this video last week, I decided to throw it back to 2008, when a brilliant professor at Carnegie Melon University […]
12-year-old girl escapes from LRA and walks 5 days to find safety
The following report comes from Saskia Rotshuizen, our Central Africa Programs Coordinator. On the night of January 12, 2013, LRA forces raided a small community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After stealing food and supplies, the group abducted one boy and four girls, including 12-year-old Patricia, forcing them to help carry the stolen […]
Obal Denis’s faceless portraits of northern Uganda
We recently came across a collection of photographs, discovered in Gulu, Uganda, by Italian photographer Martina Bacigalupo. New York Times columnist Maya Lau, describes the discovery: Visiting the town of Gulu in northern Uganda, the Italian photographer Martina Bacigalupo happened upon discarded portraits with the subjects’ faces removed. They led her to the Gulu Real […]
Kun in America / / A letter from the winner of the 2013 Peace Award
Kunangbangate Belaha (Kun) traveled from his community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the U.S. for the first time to attend the 2013 Fourth Estate Summit. While at the Summit, Kun was awarded the 2013 Peace Award for his unwavering efforts to protect his village from LRA violence. On his last morning in […]
Picking up the pieces
“I feel like I just got another baby. I am so excited and always want to know where he is, what he is doing, whether he has had something to eat. The feeling is just overwhelming.” These are the words of Mary, the mother of a young man abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army 12 […]
Supporter Spotlight / / Sofia Liberti
Sofia Liberti, a ten-year-old girl living in Germany, knows what it means to stop at nothing. After seeing the KONY 2012 video, Sofia spent a year sharing the documentary with anyone and everyone – her parents, her friends, her church, and even her school principal. Against the urgings of her parents to stop obsessing over […]
Live a life focused on involving yourself in the stories of others
Whether we realize it or not, each decision we make is an entry into our individual life story. Each decision we make either pushes the plot forward, challenges the protagonist, changes the direction of the story, or allows the protagonist to create a new one. Eventually, each of our stories will reach an end, and […]