Invisible Children/Schools for Schools
the problem:
Invisible Children is a program that is helping raise money and awareness to the war-torn state of Uganda. Invisible Children has an umbrella program called Schools for Schools that asks a school from the United States to partner with a school in Uganda and raise money to help the school. Because of the civil unrest in Uganda, a military group called the LRA began taking over schools, abducting children and using them as child soldiers, and using their schools as military bases. When the founders of Invisible Children asked a board of Ugandans what they would do to prevent something like this in the future, the answer across the board was unanimous: Education. This is our mission. We are trying to bring not only education to to Ugandan school children, but also make the environment more enjoyable just by little things such as desks, walls, and fresh water.
vital stats:
people impacted:
128people involved:
6why it's important:
The war in Uganda is the biggest humanitarian crisis since the holocaust... and hardly anyone knows about it. That is the biggest reason why I do this. To raise awareness to others that history repeats itself and they're are still horrors out there. The second biggest reason I do this is because the majority of people who do this and work at the headquarters in San Diego are between the ages of 18 and 30. Young people can make a difference. We have already. We can help. They're are truly some terribly thing in this world, but anyone can make a difference. Invisible Children has proven this time and time again.
the plan of action:
Junior year, I was just a member of my Schools for Schools program. However, that did not stop me in helping. We started off small with bakes sales every other week at home football games and change for change cans at local businesses. Then, we started trying to do things bigger. We started writing letters, hosting events at our schools, and even got a spot on the Channel 4 news. At the end of the year, we had raised over $10,000 through all of our efforts, our biggest achievement being a $1000 check that I wrote to the boss at my dad's work. I was elected president of the club for the next year. As president of my Invisible Children club, I decided to go big and put on a Powder Puff football game at my school. This was the first time anything like this had happened at my school, and we didn't have a lot of support. It was a lot of campaigning and a lot of picking up the slack of other's to throw the event together with concessions, two full girl's teams, two cheerleading squads made of guys, an mc, posters, having set practices, and even having lines on the field. The night before the game I, by myself, was hand painting the senior cheerleader's shirts and painting a poster that my dad and I ghetto-rigged in front of the local Mrs. Winner's. Our actions paid off. The event itself raised $2400, and now it is an annual tradition at my school. Plus, I was able to finally reach out the the community and parents of the school about Uganda.
how you can get involved:
There are so many ways to help. You can start your own club at your school through invisiblechildren.com, raise books for schools, buy invisible children merchandise like the Mend bags or bracelets from the Bracelet campaign, help politically with Legacy campaign at DC, or just simply donate! Money isn't everything to Invisible Children, though. Just raising awareness about this cause and telling people about it helps a lot. It truly makes my day when I say, 'Have you heard of Invisible Children?' and the reply is yes.
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