In the spring of 2003, three college filmmaking graduates traveled to Africa. What started out as a post-college adventure transformed into the discovery of a tragedy: over 30,000 children the weapons and victims of a war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda that has spanned 23 years. The GoU has proven unable to adequately protect its people from the rebel militia and as a result, two million citizens are caught in the middle of the terror.

This tragedy inspired the filmmakers to create a documentary, which in turn inspired the movement called Invisible Children. After watching that documentary, myself and a few others involved in a hall government of UW-Platteville were in turn inspired to found a branch of the IC.

In the past six months, the organization has grown into a statewide group: Wisconsin Invisible Children Cooperative. We want to lobby local and state officials to put pressure on lawmakers to act accordingly.

We are currently organizing a rally in Madison on Friday, Oct. 16 to support the Invisible Children cause and to invite artists like Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy and Mastodon to perform a benefit concert in spring 2010. But we can’t do it alone.

If you would like to help with this or future projects, or would just like more information on the organization, please e-mail me at birkholzr@uwplatt.edu with the subject line “Invisible Children.”

Rusty Birkholz
Mechanical Engineering
Executive of WICC-Platteville