National Sleepout For The "Invisible Children"

[norml]

National Sleepout For The "Invisible Children"

Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
First posted: 4/29/2006 10:43:57 PM

As you slip into your warm bed tonight, think of the young people who are sleeping outside in the rain outside the Freedom Center.

They're out there as a plea to the US government for intervention to end a war in northern Uganda where children are forced to fight as soldiers.

Cincinnati is one of 136 cities participating in the nationwide "Invisible Children" campaign.


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http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/04/29/sleepout.html


Hundreds spend the night in Manhatten Square Park.
4/29/2006 11:00 PM
(Katrina Irwin, WROC-TV)

Saturday night nearly two hundred people walked the streets of Rochester to bring awareness to the struggles of children in Northern Uganda.

It's an event happening in Rochester and in 136 other cities across the country.
The group walked for three miles throughout downtown. The final destination, Manhatten Square Park, where over two hundred people stayed the night, with sleeping bags as their only protection.

Cassie Quinn, one of the participants says, "it's dangerous and that's the point. The point is that they have to do it every night and if we can't do it for one night to sympathize and show support then it should be stopped."

The group, "Invisible Children Inc." organized the night commute, after seeing, first hand, how children in Northern Uganda live.

Jordan Smith says, "every night in Northern Uganda children walk from their homes in the suburbs for an average of two hours a night to sleep in the city where they feel safe from the rebel army that is fighting against the government there."


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http://www.wroctv.com/news/story.asp?id=22742&r=l

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Damn where are the photos? we NEED photos?

graphics is the most emotional way to reach

[donsu]

2. kicking for justice for children

nt

[BensMom]

3. Lincoln Nebraska

Article and pic from Lincoln Nebraska


http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/04/30/local/doc44542b29995ec164565245.txt

[norml]

4. Hundreds attend Uganda demonstration

Hundreds attend Uganda demonstration
By JOSH SWARTZLANDER / Lincoln Journal Star

Cloudy skies and the threat of rain didn’t deter Lincoln high school and college students who signed up to demonstrate against the brutal treatment of children in Uganda.

Event organizers said at least 600 attended the peaceful demonstration on Saturday night. Most planned to spend the night on Centennial Mall just north of the Capitol.

“We had 300 T-shirts, and they’re all gone,” said Hannah Ledford, a senior at Lincoln High School.

“I’m totally stoked,” said Jillian Brown, a 19-year-old Union College student. “So many people stayed.”

Sleeping bags, backpacks and tarps covered both grass and cement on the Mall on Saturday.

The students gathered for a group photo on the north steps of the Capitol, then got busy writing letters to Nebraska senators and President Bush, creating paintings to send to Ugandan children and getting prepared for a chilly night.


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http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/04/30/local/doc44542b29995ec164565245.txt

[zann725]

5. While the 'cause' for Uganda children is touching...how 'bout kids here

who sleep outside in the rain, and in the streets (witout homes or shelters)...often with their mothers and other family members...due to lack of adequate, affordable shelter?

Yes, I agree...do what we can for children in Uganda.

But FIRST do NOT ingore, or somehow "blame" the homeless children (or adults) Americans HERE...unless we KNOW the circumstances of their 'homelessness' here in U.S. (Certainly can't blame alcoholism or craziness on tiny homeless children, can you?) U.S. joblessness, pension-cuts, general lowering of family wage earners' pay, raising rent costs, lack of Cost of Living Raises in Wages over extended time, rising cost of basic expenses...and for a lot...escape from domestic abuse and/or incest. Since a lot of HUD housing has been cut back, and public aid (from gov't budget)...only help available certainly ISN'T through FEMA (or anything like it)...but MOSTLY only through "church-based" charities. (Beyond which, I will not comment.)

[norml]

6. There's no need for one to take away from the other.

They're all part of the same thing.