Sign the Citizens Arrest Warrent of Joseph Kony

Here is some more information about my trip to Uganda and what I encountered along the way...

On September 17^th I returned from a 10 day journey to northern Uganda with 12 other Roadies to gain a deeper understanding of the Schools for Schools program. On the third day of the trip, I had the opportunity to spend an entire day at my partner school, St. Mary’s Lacor.

By the first break in the school day I had made a few friends. We sat in the courtyard and talked as the girls flipped through the pages of my notebook, exploring a small part of my world while I sat in the midst of theirs. A hush came over the girls and one asked, “Madam, what is this?” as she pointed to notes I had taken during my Roadie training about the LRA. My heart skipped a beat as I searched for a way to explain why I had information about the LRA in my notebook.

Barbra in front of St. Mary's Lacor

I gathered my thoughts and explained to my new friends that in addition to working to rebuild their school, Invisible Children is actively trying to bring an end to the war the LRA has been perpetrating for the last two decades. There was a long, awkward silence as the girls stared down at the number of people who have been murdered and abducted by the LRA since December. After some time, a girl named Barbra looked directly at me and asked how we planned on doing this. “We are asking American students to ask President Obama to help to bring an end to this war. We believe that if we get enough students to do this, he will listen,” I replied.

After another long silence, Barbra said that she wanted to write to President Obama herself. When I returned to the school the next day, Barbra greeted me with the three page letter she had written to the President. I tucked the letter away and took a few photos with her before I had to leave to visit another school. That night, the other Roadies and I gathered together to read the letter. My heart broke as she told of how the LRA had attacked her camp, killed her family and abducted her when she was only 12 years old. While she was lucky enough to escape her captors, Barbra’s life has been forever altered by the LRA.

The more I thought about Barbra’s letter, the more I realized that she speaks not only for herself, but for the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by Joseph Kony and the tens of thousands who have been killed and kidnapped in four different countries. While Barbra is back in school, thousands of others in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic are still living under the constant threat of attack by the LRA. Here at IC, we believe this war will continue unless we let our leaders know that we will not rest until they do something about it. If you agree, please take a minute to add your voice to Barbra’s and sign the Citizen’s Arrest Warrant of Joseph Kony. (www.wewantobama.com).