In recent times, majority people have seen the Kony video, or at least heard of it through their peers. If you haven’t seen the video, you can view it here: Kony 2012 It is heartbreaking to watch the video, and it really helps to push you to try and make a difference. Before you go out and try to fight for the stop of Kony, make sure you know the facts of Invisible Children and their mission.
According to the story in the video, there is a man in Uganda, Africa, that storms around taking children in the night and is building his own personnel army with them. It is stated multiple times in the video that Kony is the number one criminal in the International Criminal Court, and needs to be stopped now as he is growing in power. All of this is true, except the video did not mention the fact that all this information is about 6 years old.
On July 8th, 2005, The International Criminal Court did name Kony the number one criminal. Kony took action by leaving Uganda in 2006, and hiding in an unknown location. Since then, he has had next to no power. Invisible Children is asking you for money so they can supposedly find a man who has the same amount of power that Saddam Hussein had when we found him. Invisible Children as a company is at the heart of these lies though.
Invisible Children is a real company. It was created by a couple of college students that traveled to Uganda and made a film about it. When this film was made, night commuting (the taking of children) was at large, and this film helped create a non-creditable charity to help those children. This was when Kony was at large though, in the years leading up to 2005. Since then, Uganda has been in a time of peace and a time of rebuilding. Invisible Children since then has never been accredited as they say they are in the video, and therefore are being blamed for not even being a real charity.
They still are a non-profit organization though, which would be nice if they were using majority of their money towards this children. About $513,000 goes towards their Computer Equipment, Transportation Equipment, Video/Camera Equipment, and furniture. Also, for their efforts the co-founders of their foundation are making about $80,000 a year. This means that they are trying to use young students to fund their trips to Uganda, and also to continue their movie making and documentaries. This would be great, if the documentaries weren’t made about a problem that hasn’t been apparent for 6 years.
From the information shown it would seem that Invisible Children is a small organization that is making money off of us using our ignorance. They are able to directly lie to us and drop just below the media radar to avoid a major public backlash. It is almost certain that this organization will come under fire in a couple of months for stretching the truth to the public.
This article was not meant to stop anyone from trying to help. It was merely just to inform the people of what is really going on in Uganda. If you want to find more information, there is a blog set up to expose this organization. (Source)Now that you have both sides of the story, it is up to you to decide what you want to believe and do about this situation.