Our organization is relatively new, but we have accomplished so much. Since the spring of 2006, we have held multiple screenings of "Invisible Children," the documentary about the conflict in Northern Uganda that first moved us to do something. We have empowered our peers by organizing letter writing campaigns to our senators and representatives in government; helped organize the "Global Night Commute" last April where 2,000 people joined us in Grant Park and slept outside in the rain to show solidarity for the children of N. Uganda; lobbied in Washington D.C. on behalf of the people of Northern Uganda; and raised 7,000 dollars through our fundraiser, the IC Plunge, where we jumped into Lake Michigan in December. On April 12, we are having a Reception in CFSU all day which will raise funds and awareness among Loyola students. On April 28 and 29 we will help run this year's version of the Global Night Commute - "Displace Me."
Recently, we have started an education program in Uganda called the "Dwon Madiki Partnership." Through this partnership, we are providing for the education of 21 Uganda children ages 5-13. We have also opened an office in Gulu, Uganda.
Our partner, Grace Odonga, checks up on "our" 21 kids and helps runs our organization in Uganda. Our kids meet up almost every day after school and Grace, with the help of volunteers, tutor the kids, teach them song, dance, and give them safe space to play games. We have received drawing and poems from all of them and are truly making a difference in all of their lives.
One of our goals is to compose a human rights curriculum to teach our Ugandan kids as well as lower-income children in Chicago. We are currently working with two groups of children in Chicago who are very excited to join us. When we teach our curriculum, thus providing a necessary human rights education at an early age, we will encourage the children to express themselves through art. The art of children is very powerful and can influence people in the West who are ignorant of many of the world's invisible conflicts.
This summer we are sending three Loyola students from our organization to Uganda. They will meet with Grace and our kids, teach our kids how to use cameras that we are currently acquiring through donations, and document their trip. Most importantly, they will gather important information to help us adapt our human rights curriculum so that it can be used in Uganda. Then, in December, we will send more people from our organization to further the building of our human rights curriculum and maybe begin to teach it.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Background on Uganda
For over 20 years, the people of N. Uganda have been in the middle of a conflict involving the Uganda government and the rebel movement called the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. The LRA does not recognize the legitimacy of the current Uganda government under President Museveni and has been attempting an overthrow of the government. The LRA claims that it is doing this in the name of Christianity as well as to "free" the Acholi people of N. Uganda. In actuality, the LRA has little support for its movement and thus has resorted to kidnapping children from the region to fill its ranks. The LRA targets children as young as 6-8 and forces them into the "bush" were they are immediately desensitized. The boys are turned into brutal child soldiers and the girls are forced to become sex slaves. Eery night the children of N. Uganda have been forced to leave their homes and families and travel to the major cities, such as Gulu, inorder to escape abduction. There, the children sleep under verandas, in the bus parks, unprotected and without supervision. In the past year, after pressure from the international community increased, a cease fire was declared and peace talks ensued between the Ugandan government and the LRA. For the first time in over 20 years peace has slowly returned to N. Uganda: night commuting is on the decline, no abductions have been reported, and the people in the internally displaced camps are beginning to return home. It is vital that the international community vocalize their support for the Juba Peace Talks so that peace can return permanently to N. Uganda.
Dwon Madiki Partnership
the MISSION
To foster sustainable, personal relationships with Ugandan children, to amplify their voices in the West, and to empower them through partnership, mentorship,and education.
the HISTORY
Grace Odonga, the mother of a good friend in our organization has a community based organization (CBO) recognized by the local Ugandan Government called Women Together. Recently, Grace has shared the pictures and names of 21 Ugandan orphans with us. These children’s lives have been greatly affected by this war, but now that peace talks are in the process, they have the opportunity to go to school. The problem is that many children are theoretically covered by the universal primary school program, but still cannot go to school for many reasons: lack of uniforms, non-tuition school fees, book fees, and lack of money for food. Dwon Madiki Partnership aims to eliminate these barriers that have prevented them from flourishing. Through art and communication the children tell their stories to us in the West, which “helps us help them” raise money for their own education. We envision a two way learning process. We will learn from them, and they from us, all the while developing a lifelong friendship.
the LIFESTYLE
All of the 21 children are either orphans, parents to younger sibling, or the child of one parental figure, but none of them have enough support to have an education. In order to survive, many of them deliver water for money, a day-long backbreaking task which keeps them from school and pays next to nothing. The Partnership provides the money they need for school and other necessities, a mentor figure to monitor their progress and provide encouragement, and an outlet for expression through art, especially photography, which will help us tell their stories to the world. In addition, Dwon Madiki has an office in Gulu where the children come after school to play and check in with Grace, our local administrator.
Already, the lives of children are changing. They are all thrilled to be connected to the outside world, and overjoyed to be going to school. Were it not for Dwon Madiki, these kids would be carting water all day just to survive.
the RELATIONSHIP
Invisible Conflicts is forging personal relationships between individuals in Uganda and the West, linking communities of power with those living in poverty. To this end, we plan to develop a program that will open lines of communication between our two worlds. We will make it easy both for the children to communicate with us, and for our peers to communicate personally with the children, sharing our lives through art, letters, blogs, email, and forums. We are currently developing a curriculum for the after school program that is intended to engage and educate the children on the subject of human rights. This curriculum is designed such that it can be used in either a Ugandan or American classroom, and can be implemented through art activities, peer discussion, or history and social/civic studies lessons. As we develop this curriculum, we are in talks with two Chicago non-profits that work with underprivileged youth in the inner city. We will engage both the Dwon Madiki children and a group of Chicago children in a dialogue, using the curriculum as a loose guide to start kids in both communities thinking and talking about human rights. By providing a guiding framework (the curriculum), cameras, art supplies, instruction and encouragement, we will provide both groups with the means to tell their stories through art. We will also encourage both groups to use their art to answer questions about human rights brought up in discussion and their every day life experience. Eventually, the children will be encouraged to propose a solution to problems they see around them, and to express it through art. Their art will be shared not only with their “sister students” across the globe, but also with donors and people in powerful political positions in the west. It is our experience that the art of children can be very powerful, and we expect it will impel people in the U.S. to donate money, to get both politically and personally involved. We believe that getting underprivileged children to internalize basic fundamentals of human rights at an early age will be transformative both in their lives and the communities they live in. By encouraging them to be creative, we will build their confidence, and help build critical thinking skills vital to a community so in need of drastic change. Furthermore, as the children exchange art and develop relationships across the ocean, their world will be “expanded,” and their horizons thus broadened. We will encourage them to adopt a global perspective.
In addition to creating relationships and understanding between the two groups of children, we also are building and will continue to build a relationship between the community of Gulu and our peers in America. This summer, our first representatives will travel to Uganda to help set up computers, work with Grace Odonga to adjust the after school program curriculum to suit the Acholi (the local tribe) culture, to build the relationship, and to document the story of Uganda’s children for those of us who cannot go.
To foster sustainable, personal relationships with Ugandan children, to amplify their voices in the West, and to empower them through partnership, mentorship,and education.
the HISTORY
Grace Odonga, the mother of a good friend in our organization has a community based organization (CBO) recognized by the local Ugandan Government called Women Together. Recently, Grace has shared the pictures and names of 21 Ugandan orphans with us. These children’s lives have been greatly affected by this war, but now that peace talks are in the process, they have the opportunity to go to school. The problem is that many children are theoretically covered by the universal primary school program, but still cannot go to school for many reasons: lack of uniforms, non-tuition school fees, book fees, and lack of money for food. Dwon Madiki Partnership aims to eliminate these barriers that have prevented them from flourishing. Through art and communication the children tell their stories to us in the West, which “helps us help them” raise money for their own education. We envision a two way learning process. We will learn from them, and they from us, all the while developing a lifelong friendship.
the LIFESTYLE
All of the 21 children are either orphans, parents to younger sibling, or the child of one parental figure, but none of them have enough support to have an education. In order to survive, many of them deliver water for money, a day-long backbreaking task which keeps them from school and pays next to nothing. The Partnership provides the money they need for school and other necessities, a mentor figure to monitor their progress and provide encouragement, and an outlet for expression through art, especially photography, which will help us tell their stories to the world. In addition, Dwon Madiki has an office in Gulu where the children come after school to play and check in with Grace, our local administrator.
Already, the lives of children are changing. They are all thrilled to be connected to the outside world, and overjoyed to be going to school. Were it not for Dwon Madiki, these kids would be carting water all day just to survive.
the RELATIONSHIP
Invisible Conflicts is forging personal relationships between individuals in Uganda and the West, linking communities of power with those living in poverty. To this end, we plan to develop a program that will open lines of communication between our two worlds. We will make it easy both for the children to communicate with us, and for our peers to communicate personally with the children, sharing our lives through art, letters, blogs, email, and forums. We are currently developing a curriculum for the after school program that is intended to engage and educate the children on the subject of human rights. This curriculum is designed such that it can be used in either a Ugandan or American classroom, and can be implemented through art activities, peer discussion, or history and social/civic studies lessons. As we develop this curriculum, we are in talks with two Chicago non-profits that work with underprivileged youth in the inner city. We will engage both the Dwon Madiki children and a group of Chicago children in a dialogue, using the curriculum as a loose guide to start kids in both communities thinking and talking about human rights. By providing a guiding framework (the curriculum), cameras, art supplies, instruction and encouragement, we will provide both groups with the means to tell their stories through art. We will also encourage both groups to use their art to answer questions about human rights brought up in discussion and their every day life experience. Eventually, the children will be encouraged to propose a solution to problems they see around them, and to express it through art. Their art will be shared not only with their “sister students” across the globe, but also with donors and people in powerful political positions in the west. It is our experience that the art of children can be very powerful, and we expect it will impel people in the U.S. to donate money, to get both politically and personally involved. We believe that getting underprivileged children to internalize basic fundamentals of human rights at an early age will be transformative both in their lives and the communities they live in. By encouraging them to be creative, we will build their confidence, and help build critical thinking skills vital to a community so in need of drastic change. Furthermore, as the children exchange art and develop relationships across the ocean, their world will be “expanded,” and their horizons thus broadened. We will encourage them to adopt a global perspective.
In addition to creating relationships and understanding between the two groups of children, we also are building and will continue to build a relationship between the community of Gulu and our peers in America. This summer, our first representatives will travel to Uganda to help set up computers, work with Grace Odonga to adjust the after school program curriculum to suit the Acholi (the local tribe) culture, to build the relationship, and to document the story of Uganda’s children for those of us who cannot go.
Invisible Conflicts Loyola: Mission Statement
- We tell the stories of invisible conflicts and their victims; of conflicts that have been ignored by the media and the governments of the western world.
- We strive to tell these stories in a relevant, creative, and positive spirit.
- We are driven by hope; we reject pessimism and embrace compassion.
- When people hear these stories, they will want to act to bring about justice.
- We do not stop at telling stories, we empower people to act by giving them simple things they can do to help, and seek to lead by example.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
