Denver, CO (1888PressRelease)
May 02, 2007 - This event brought together thousands of Americans who said “Displace Me” and left their homes to bring them home.
Thornton High School Student, Randi Farris rallied a group of teens and traveled to the Colorado Horse Park to join over 3,500 locally and over 67,800 nationally, wanting to make a difference. These children, teens and adults brought cardboard boxes, saltine crackers and bottles of water and set up a mock IDP camp and brave the cold to raise awareness for those suffering in Uganda.
Ten years ago, thousands of Ugandans were forcibly evicted from their homes and transported to overcrowded camps due to the horrific war in the North. These IDP camps were established as a temporary solution to the war to better protect civilians from the Lord’s Resistance Army, otherwise known as the LRA. But ten years later, the camps are far from secure and house up to 1.5 million people, with more than a thousand dying every week due to the harsh conditions. Northern Uganda now has a generation of youth that has never known peace.
Displace Me is Invisible Children’s response to this emergency, saying that “Every War Has an End.” Held in 15 locations nationwide, Displace Me began at 3 pm on April 28 and conclude the following morning. This event focused on storytelling to personalize a tragedy largely unknown to the international community. Participants at each location sent bold statements to the U.S. and Ugandan governments by demanding U.S. support of the peace talks in the North – talks that hold so much in the balance for the displaced population.
“We believe in the power of the individual voice,” says Jason Russell, founder of Invisible Children. “Displace Me is an opportunity for this grassroots movement to come together and collectively amplify the cries of the displaced to end one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time.”
Last year, Invisible Children hosted an event called the “Global Night Commute,” in which 80,000 Americans slept outside in their downtown city districts to end the war in Northern Uganda. Two months later, peace talks ensued. This year, Invisible Children is hoping Displace Me will be an event that will bring the peace talks to a close and finally return the displaced people to their homes. This event was cosponsored by Enough Project and Resolve Uganda.
About Invisible Children, Inc.
Established in 2005, Invisible Children is a non-profit organization based in San Diego that is dedicated to providing financial resources to invisible
children by documenting their true, untold stories in a creative and relevant way.
