PeaceJam | Invisible Children

Invisible Children

Rights for Women and Children, and their Role as Leaders

Location:	Tallahassee, Florida, United States

Created:	3/12/2010

Last Update:	3/12/2010

Project Goal: Initially, our goals for our work with Invisible Children were primarily service-minded, aiming at raising awareness of the issue and raising capital to assist in the building of Ugandan schools. Our money was also going to be used to provide scholarships to their underprivileged youth affected by the war. In the process of accomplishing our service goals, we noted our growth as individuals. We decided that an additional goal of our club should be to promote the cause within our community, spurring other schools or organizations into joining the movement. Root Cause: For the 2009-2010 school year our school, Amos P. Godby, picked the book, “A Long Way Gone”, as the mandatory school-wide summer reading book. This novel by Ishmael Beah takes the reader through a journey of his personal account as a child-soldier forced to fight in a country-wide war in Sierra Leone. After reading this book, we became motivated to help in any way we possibly could. While researching the war in Sierra Leone, we found out that a very similar war was currently happening in northern Uganda. The war in Uganda has been going on for over 20 years, and the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) forces children to fight just as Ishmael was forced to fight for the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). We also learned that the war had devastated the schools in the area, and left children with little hope for a future. Project Plan: To reach our goal for Invisible Children, we organized and implemented many fundraisers including stop the bop, a car wash, change-4-change, a Thanksgiving bake auction, a hat day, and selling student designed t-shirts. Stop the Bop: The purpose of stop the bop was to hold our school under “ransom” by picking an annoying song and continuously playing it during lunch. “MmmBop” by Hansen was the song of choice and the only way to stop the bop was for each student and faculty member to pay a dollar. Although it took us three weeks, we raised $1400 with this fundraiser. Car wash-a-thon: For this activity, we picked a Saturday to go out and wash cars for free while accepting donations for our cause. With the help of sponsors, we raised approximately $450.00. Change-4-change: In this event we simply asked for change. This shows that even the smallest of donations can add up to a big sum. We pushed the message that the change donated would create change in Uganda. We raised about $100.00. Thanksgiving Bake Auction: During the holiday season, we came up with the idea to have a bake auction, where we all brought in baked goods to auction off to the teachers so they wouldn’t have to bake during the break. Our efforts in the kitchen resulted in $150.00 for the organization, making it a great fundraiser we hope to continue. Hat Day: One of the most strictly enforced rules of our school dress code is that students are not allowed to wear hats on campus. When we came up with the idea to sponsor a hat day that would allow students to wear hats, naturally they jumped at the chance. Students purchased hat day stickers for $1.00 to have the ability to wear a hat. We raised $150.00 during this fundraiser. T-Shirts: Our club decided to design a shirt that could be sold to students, teachers, and community members to promote our message. After we agreed on a design, the art students at our school created the shirts with the printing screen we have at Godby. This fundraiser helped us raise $350.00 for Northern Uganda.

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