Shining a Light on the Invisible Children

On Monday in Orange County came the rally that everyone heard about.

On the Saturday night before came the rally that nobody heard about.

It’s a fact of life that there are lots of causes out there. And, let’s face it, when the cause involves strife in Africa, it tends to go to the end of the line of Americans’ concerns.

So, it was with little fanfare that several hundred people -- most of them in their 20s -- showed up at Orange Coast College on Saturday night to signal their protest of what’s happening in Uganda, a war-torn country in central Africa.

For some time now, thousands of children have been walking several miles each night from their villages into neighboring cities, seeking refuge. They do it because a particularly contemptible rebel group has abducted children for use as soldiers and has sexually abused young girls.

And even though raids on their villages are not nightly affairs, young children make the treks, because the cities have set aside safe areas for them to encamp. The next morning, the children return, believing they’ll be safe during daylight hours.

It’s an almost unfathomable story and exactly the kind most of us don’t want to think about. Or acknowledge.

To commemorate the walks and draw attention to the Ugandan children’s plight, a nonprofit group called Invisible Children sponsored Global Night Commute, asking that people commit themselves to one overnight stay outdoors. In Orange County, the designated site was an Orange Coast College athletic field. Once there, they were asked to write letters to their senators and President Bush.

But while Monday’s immigrants’ march dominated news coverage, the Ugandan rally existed off the radar charts. It couldn’t even compete for news coverage with a similar rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday in protest of the continuing strife in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Austin Fleming, a 16-year-old sophomore at Newport Harbor High School, made the three-mile walk to OCC on Saturday night, leaving about 8:30 from his Newport Beach home. His father, Robert, walked with him, then left his son with the crowd. Austin left the next morning, making a four-mile walk to St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach.

“I can understand why people feel [Uganda] is a million miles away,” Austin said Thursday when I reached him on his cellphone. “But I sort of looked on the bright side that so many people showed up.”

A DVD on the Ugandan situation has made the rounds in recent months at various schools, but Austin said he hadn’t seen it until last Friday night. Around 8:30 Saturday night, Austin decided to add his presence to the effort.

“I just wanted to do what little I could to help out,” he said. “It’s not that much. It’s OK that I gave up one night in my comfy bed. In comparison to what these children need to do, it’s almost insignificant. If I could help in any way, it was worth it.”

An Invisible Children spokeswoman in San Diego said 70,000 people showed up in 136 U.S. cities. The Ugandan situation has resonated with young people, but the organization accepts the fact it is competing with other crises for people’s attention.

Austin’s youth pastor is Jarred Rowland. He’s socially minded and wants his youth group “to know what’s going on in the world.” He is philosophical about Americans’ penchant for being somewhat insular about world problems, noting that the combination of apathy and the plethora of world problems tends to overwhelm most people.

But, of course, there was nationwide attention on the immigration rally.

“I wouldn’t say I was jealous that theirs was bigger than ours,” Rowland said. “It was just exciting to see people doing something about it and not just sitting at home wanting to do something about it. It was exciting to see the whole spirit of the ‘60s where people wanted to get involved and wanted to let people know their voice matters.”