April 25: The Night of your Life

I love Invisible Children. Where will you be on April 25? Ready to win a trip to Uganda?

25 Instructional Video from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Create your profile page here. Stay Classy designs and manages the Invisible Children fundraising pages. They're awesome and are also based in San Diego!

Fall Out Boy & Invisible Children

When I come across things like this, it reminds me of how disappointed I am that Fall Out Boy broke up. Ah well.

From the Invisible Children website:

Ever since Pete Wentz heard about Invisible Children, Fall Out Boy has gone above and beyond to use their unique platform to spread the word about northern Uganda. Throughout 2007, FOB promoted our nationwide event Displace Me through a video shown to every audience on their tour. They continued to get involved by traveling with us to Uganda in July 2007 and filming their music video “I’m Like a Lawyer,” which IC co-produced.

Resolve recaps 2010

So inspired by the work of Resolve and Invisible Children.

Resolve Looks Back on 2010 from The Resolve on Vimeo.

Donations to Resolve can be made here.

Want more from Resolve? I watched this video just last night - made me cry.

Resolve's DC Vigil from The Resolve on Vimeo.

There is only room for Hope

I am so proud ... moved ... I don't know. Resolve Uganda.

I emailed President Obama sometime within the past week, upon the request of either Resolve Uganda or the Invisible Children (don't remember which) asking President Obama to make a public statement on his support for the bill.

He did it! Check out the statement from Invisible Children here.

Then the video summary of the day here:



Read Obama's statement on the occasion of the bill signing here.

You can help save Uganda's Child Soldiers by sending an Email. Come on ... you know you have a minute!

Received this message from Resolve Uganda tonight. PLEASE take action. They are so close to a big victory, but need our help!



Nicole --



Yesterday, your continued support for legislation in Congress seeking to address LRA violence helped overcome yet another major hurdle on the bill's path to President Obama's desk.

After disagreements among members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs threatened to delay the bill's consideration for months, more than 5,000 people signed a petition to Committee leaders. As a result, it was added last-minute to the agenda of yesterday's Committee meeting, where it was approved unanimously. (We also hear the Coburn campaign was fresh in the minds of several Members of Congress…)

Now it is on to a vote in the full House of Representatives, which we expect in the next two weeks. If we act quickly, we have one last chance to convince Members of Congress to speak out and make sure the bill passes.

Click here to e-mail your Representative to request that they issue a "floor statement" when the bill comes up for a vote.

These statements from Members of Congress are crucial to securing the votes needed for the bill's passage. They also send a clear message to President Obama that Congress and activists across the country expect serious new action toward peace.



The importance of sending this message is simple. Last time we e-mailed you, it was with news of a devastating LRA massacre in northeastern Congo. Such a tragedy can be prevented from happening again if our leaders take the steps called for in this legislation.

Passage in the House of Representatives is the last step before the bill gets sent to the President. If we succeed in achieving this final milestone, we look forward to joining all of you in celebration as he puts his pen to paper and signs this legislation into law.

Sincerely,

Paul Ronan
Director of Advocacy, Resolve Uganda

A message from Invisible Children :: Wanted: Roadies and Textbooks

Got this in an email yesterday from Invisible Children. In addition to the below, check out my January 26th post that recaps Invisible Children and talks about their previous Roadie opportunities.



With the Senate passing legislation mandating President Obama to lead the efforts to stop Joseph Kony, this fall’s Schools for Schools tour will be packed with the most potential yet for long-term, effective change in northern Uganda.

And we want you to be a part of it. We want you to be a roadie. Three months on the road, sharing the stories of Invisible Children, will help transform the lives of an entire country affected by Africa’s longest running war.

The May 10th application deadline is right around the corner. Visit our website and apply today.


Now, a message for our college friends:

This spring, don’t get stuck waiting in line to sell your books back at the bookstore. There’s a better way. A much better way. Go here and click the button that says “Get $$ For Your Textbooks”. You’ll get a fair price and IC will benefit at the same time. Every book you sell raises funds for our programs, plus you can choose to donate a little something extra at checkout.

Help us by sharing this link with others on your campus and making it your Facebook status before finals.

Thank you,
Invisible Children

P.S. - Booking for the Schools for School Fall 2010 Tour has commenced. If you would like to bring the tour to your town give us a call at 619.562.2799

Brett Dennen covers Citizen Cope for The Voice Project

From an April 6th Paste Magazine article that I came across today, thanks to Mick Management's Facebook page:

... Soldiers who escape from the LRA [Lords Resistance Army in Uganda aka child soldiers] often take cover in the bush, too ashamed of what they’ve done to return to their homes. In an effort to bring home the men living in self-imposed exile, the women of Northern Uganda have begun singing songs of peace, welcoming and forgiveness, which are passed by radio and word of mouth out to the bush. And, as a result, the soldiers are finally beginning to come home.

The Voice Project “is an attempt to support these incredible women and the peace movement in Uganda, and an effort to see how far a voice can carry.”

It seeks to amplify the voices of the women of Northern Uganda by joining them, asking artists to cover one of their favorite songs by someone else to pass the message of peace and solidarity along.

Paste is proud to premiere The Voice Project’s first video, in which Brett Dennen covers Citizen Cope’s “Healing Hands.”

Watch the video here.

... and we're only 3 months into 2010 ...

Received this update today from Invisible Children:

Citizen Arrest Warrant Hand-Off from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Senator Coburn AND the US Senate said YES!

I received this email from Oklahoma City, OK 3 days ago.



All:

Big news.

We will send out a more serious blast later this week when the bill passes the full Senate, but you deserve to know now: Senator Coburn agreed to lift his hold on the bill today!

The Hold Out lasted 262 hours before a compromise was finally reached. Dozens of local news stories carried the story of the heroic activists who refused to leave the Senator's office in downtown Oklahoma City until they were successful, and the Senator's office was flooded with thousands of phone calls this past week. The Senator himself will be getting on the phone with organizers in just an hour to talk about how we can continue to work together.

Now, our focus turns to the House of Representatives, which must still pass their version of the bill before it can be sent to the President to be signed into law.

Kenneth Transier, one of our staff in Oklahoma, gave a shout out to all you supporters:

"To the people who slept next to me for eleven nights in the shadow of the Chase building, and those who supported us: You helped convince the most stubborn Senator in modern history to accept a compromise. You played a part in bringing $40 million to help rebuild four nations, and in creating what we hope is a big step toward the end of the longest running war in Africa."

Thank you. Victories like this don't come often, and our progress is not always so dramatic. That's why we are going to celebrate this one like crazy.

-Michael
Resolve Uganda


photo: OK City, OK celebration


Then I received this email today:

Nicole -

We couldn't be more overjoyed.

At 7:08PM last night, the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act passed the United States Senate with more bipartisan cosponsors than any Africa-focused legislation in at least three decades.

In short, this is huge.

Our focus now has to turn to the House of Representatives, which must pass the bill before it can reach the President's desk. Will you email your Representative now?

We can't say thank you enough. This is an achievement truly worth celebrating, one that will undoubtedly benefit families enduring the costs of this war for years to come.

The first good news actually came earlier this week. Under considerable pressure, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma agreed to lift his hold on the bill. Dozens of activists had refused to leave the Senator's Oklahoma City office until he allowed it to pass. Their "hold out" lasted 262 straight hours, generated significant media attention, and galvanized thousands of phone calls to the Senator's office.

The effort was a remarkable show of commitment from everyone involved. In the words of Oklahoman coordinator Mark Nehrenz, "As a movement, we found our voices this week, and we will not be silent. We are here to stay."

Senator Feingold, ecstatic about the achievement, said that it "sends a message that the United States will no longer stand by and watch the Lord's Resistance Army terrorize innocent civilians across central Africa, kidnap thousands of children and force them to become child soldiers" and commits our country to help "change the conditions that have allowed this war to persist for so long."

Senator Inhofe even gave you all a shout-out, acknowledging that none of this would have been possible without "the hard work and effort of all those who have believed in the importance of this legislation."

But it's not over yet. Far from it. And we're grateful to have you with us as we continue to move forward.

Sincerely,

Michael
Resolve Uganda


Check out this update from OK City, OK -