Only two years ago, Westminster Christian Academy was considered to be one of the handful of schools that saw beyond their own walls. The school was set apart from those ignorant on the ongoing war in Uganda, threatening the lives of thousands of young children everyday. Students were well-aware of the horrors they faced every night as they commuted from their homes on the countryside and into towns such as, Gulu, Uganda to avoid abduction by the rebel leader  of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony. They saw the atrocities forced upon them if taken captive by Kony and his soldiers: abuse, rape, and being made to fight in a war they knew nothing about– being  handed guns and machetes, told to kill or be killed. The student body at WCA gaped at the numbers, knowing this was the fate of over 30,000 children our age, if not younger. It broke hearts as the school continued to  learne more and more but what , perhaps, really upset them? How little was being done to help these children.

Thanks to the information passed on by fellow students, the Contemporary World Affairs class began to champion for an organization called Invisible Children. A non-profit that uses “film, creativity, and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel army and restore LRA-affected communities in central Africa to peace and prosperity,” according to their website invisiblechildren.com. Westminster saw and most importantly, cared for a virtually invisible group of young people. The school became fired up, headed by the Contemporary World Affairs class. The school sold t-shirts, held chapels passing on information, emailed their congressmen and urged them to consider the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Act to pursue Joseph Kony and ultimate peace in Uganda. (This bill was eventually passed into law by congress in 2010).

With all this momentum, WCA still somehow lost sight. The school accomplished so much but for some reason,the involvement  in this organization has quickly trickled off over the last two years.  WCA no longer does anything in support of Invisible Children, though there is still much to be done. The region must be stabilized. The child soldiers must be brought back into the area and helped to heal. The children must be educated. There must be reconciliation in order to ensure a tragedy like this will never occur again.

With an issue as important and life-threatening as the war in Uganda, the school must remember what they started. Perhaps without the incintive of the Contemporary Wold Affairs class, the school has lost sight but the care is still there.

After the premeire of Kony 2012, a video by Invisible Children, many students at Westminster took to the web to voice that they still cared about these seemingly invisible children that 99% of the world don’t know exist. Their words and passion a sure sign they had not forgotten or shut their eyes on the children of Uganda.

“We have to continue to try and stop Joseph Kony because if we don’t, no one will and he is a total monster. There’s no excuse for us not to do something about it,” said Valerie Chavez, junior.

Average college boys began Invisible Children, an organization that has done more statistically than any other charity working to bring relief to Northern Uganda. They were not looking to be humanitarians or to change the world but they definitely did.

The students here at WCA began our involvement with Inivisible Children. Not the administration or the parents. The students here saw an injustice being done, and made a decision that they would not be bystanders in the matter.

Just a few students with the want to help, brought us all together as a school. They put a lot of time, energy and care into what they were doing and presenting it to the school.

“WCA should restart Invisible Children. It’s important to me because Joseph Kony is almost the equivalent to Hitler. He is capturing, torturing and killing children and people in Africa for no reason, ” said Andrew Cannon, sophomore.

WCA has a unique oppurtonity to really make a change in 2012. Invisible recently launched their Kony 2012 campaign on March 5, to bring the LRA and their rebel leader Joseph Kony to justice.

What they ask of those willing to participate is simple. Make Joseph Kony famous. Not to celebrate the horrors he has done but bring them to light.

Half the reason Kony and his army has been able to bring so much terror to Uganda is because the majority of the world has no clue what is going on in this forgotten region of the world.

“If the goverment doesn’t believe the people care about arresting Kony, the misson (to pursue Kony by Ugandan military and U.S advisors) will be cancelled. In order for the people to care, they have to know. They will only know if Kony’s name is everywhere,” said Jason Russel of Invisible Children.

Westminster can reinstate their pledges to these children and this cause easily. It does not take much. It just takes a few students to get behind them again. To say they want to be a part of the change, to decide they will not sit idly by and shake their heads and say, “What a shame.”

In history, the world has seen that “All that is necessary for evil to tiumph is for good men to do nothing.” Westminster is a community full of good men, who know the truth, know the intention God has for his children and his kingdom and must use these blessings to really make a difference in a world full of blind men and women.

The student body has the knowledge, the resources and the passion to do something so that “Where you live does not determine if you live.”