On a clear New Hampshire night, Grace Nimaro, a native Ugandan, spoke to a group of Plymouth students in the HUB. She spoke about growing up in Central Africa, an area which has been plagued by civil war. In her native state, the battle was led by the militant group called the Lord’s Resistance Army. She described the attacks from the group on her hometown, and the kidnapping of her cousin and brother by the hands of the LRA, “I don’t know where they are, dead…alive…I just don’t know.”
Yet through the tribulations of her past, she remained optimistic about her future. “Through my Auntie, in 2007,” Grace said quietly after the presentation, “she told me about Invisible Children, who gave me a scholarship, and now I have my college degree in business computing.”
Before Grace gave her speech, the crowd watched a film on the founding of Invisible Children. The film told the story of the cre– ators, the beneficiaries, and the goals of the San Diego-based nonprofit organization.
Invisible Children is dedicated to saving the children who have been kidnapped by the LRA and seeing that they are rehabilitated. They also seek justice against Ugandan war criminals (namely the LRA leader, Joseph Kony) who instigate mass terror, rebuild schools, educate future leaders, and provide jobs and scholarships to the people of Central Africa.
Invisible Children has accomplished a great deal since their rocky start in 2003. Amid early debt, the nonprofit managed to assemble teams of young people to take stories of displaced children all around the United States. Through high schools, universities, and churches, the children were heard.
Grace is part of this traveling medicine show, or “roadies,” as the organization calls them, that travel around speaking to universities like our own. The roadies are essentially the backbone to the organization. These constantly traveling and sacrificing groups of young people have raised enough money to build schools, install emergency radio broadcast towers, fund scholarships, build rehabilitation centers, and so much more.
On May 13th, 2010, The House of Representatives passed “the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.” The bill, which was signed by President Obama, outlines a strategy to capture many LRA war criminals. Invisible Children was praised as the main impetus for the bill.
Plymouth’s own Brian Funk, class of 11′, is now one of those roadies traveling from place to place trying to spread the message and give a voice to the voiceless. Funk was part of Ending Genocide Around the World, or EGAW, a club here on campus which remains close to Invisible Children. Zach Goldenberg a member of EGAW and a chief organizer of the event was happy with the turn out, “It’s tough to get people to come, but over 60 is a good turn out.”
The turn out generated good money for the cause and brought world awareness to our quiet corner of New England.