Thank you for watching our video – please share! Please click this link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/raise-your-voice-niteo-single/id516419019 to download our song Raise Your Voice.

I’ve been asked by a few people to comment on the recent events surrounding the viral Kony video and what has happened with Invisible Children. The unfortunate emotional collapse of the co-founder of Invisible Children after being personally attacked for the making of the Kony video is disheartening. It just solidifies in my mind that unless you have an overwhelming passion for a cause so much greater than you, you cannot understand how that passion takes over your life and how you would do anything to make others see what you have seen. Unless you have a passion for service of some kind – be it humanitarian, environmental, health or any other passion, you cannot understand the magnitude of someone else’s passion for service.

The objective of the Kony video was to bring awareness about this monster who has done atrocious things to the people of Northern Uganda and who now continues his rampage in neighbouring countries. If you haven’t seen the video, here it is: Kony 2012

These men of Invisible Children saw what the war in Northern Uganda was doing to the children. They saw the children sleeping by the hundreds on the floors of buildings in Gulu to stay safe from night raids in their villages. They spoke with the children who had been captured and escaped. How can anyone not be moved to do anything possible to help? I have seen a school that is being funded by Invisible Children that educates the girls who were abducted by the LRA. The girls are safe and are being given an opportunity to return to their communities as contributing members of society. Invisible Children is doing great work.

Some of the facts in the video are wrong. The negative picture it paints of Uganda is not accurate. The Prime Minister of Uganda has responded to the video. It is very powerful. Please watch it here: Right Honourable Amama Mbabazi

But the goal of the video was to bring awareness of the hell Kony has wrought on a generation of innocent people in Northern Uganda. He needs to be caught and stopped. It seems that this goal is being reached. Several governments are now re-investing in the capture of Kony and the US is being asked to be involved. This is the article: African Union Force Steps Up Hunt for Joseph Kony

I have been to Gulu. I have spoken with the girls who have come out of the bush after the end of the war who have young children and nowhere to go. I have seen the people who have spent over 20 years in internally displaced persons camps and who are now trying to rebuild their lives. I have spoken with those who are trying to help rebuild the community and they all say the people need one thing: education.

That is what Niteo does. You can do it too. Contact us through our “Get Involved” page and find out how. Or contact me directly using the email below.

Thank you Invisible Children for bringing awareness to an area that needs awareness. Thank you for the work you are doing to help educate the generation of children who were caught up in the civil war. I wish a speedy recovery to Jason Russell and the whole Invisible Children family so that they can return to their amazing work quickly.

- Erika

erika (at) niteoafrica (dot) org

While I am a bit behind on watching the actual footage, it has been interesting to watch the video sweep the world, listen to people’s responses, consider how the world is changing, and consider my part in creating what it will become.

Making the invisible visible.  Bringing awareness.  What a profound journey.

I’ve traveled to Gulu.  The orphans, the widows, the child soldiers, the schools, the reconstruction, and the challenges that lay ahead are MANY.  Only two weeks ago we heard that there wasn’t any drinkable water in Gulu…for days.  The people have been devastated, but they also are resilient and STRONG!  When I speak with them, any of them, they ask for education.  Everyone from the hotel manager to the teacher to the child mutilated by Kony, they ask for education.  So, being a teacher, I have chosen to make that investment through Niteo, because I’m stirred by my friends who want to re-create themselves and know that they can through learning.

Child Reads at 1st Literacy Centre: Eva Ruf Resource Centre

Also, because I’ve seen the devastation and the HUNGER for a new day in Uganda, I find it initially difficult to consider how millions and millions of dollars will be spent in stopping Kony, rather than creating a sustainable society where the Acholi people can recover and THRIVE.

But then I read the blog “Rage Against the Mini-Van” and it said about the banter, “It’s as if a bunch of people were standing around a burning apartment building.  Some people are working on stopping the fire.  Others are working on attending to the people who’ve been pulled out.  But what if the majority of people are just standing around, criticizing the people who are trying to help for starting on the wrong job, instead of getting in and helping out, too?”

I’m indicted.

Following the analogy, some are doing great work…stopping a fire.

Niteo is doing and will continue to grow into doing great work…attending the people who’ve been pulled out.  I’m proud of that.

We invite you to consider being involved in Niteo’s brand new pilot project: Literacy Centres.  We’re partnering with Big Steel Box to create sustainable libraries of books for schools, orphanages, and villages all over Uganda, supporting education.  We need volunteers this summer to join in our effort, check out our Trip fact sheet 2012.

What stirs you?

Do it.

Please spread this link far and wide. If you have the ability to do so, please print out this poster and post it at your school, workplace or gathering site.

If you need a high resolution copy, please log in and leave a comment and we’ll be happy to email you the file.

We seek to facilitate renewal and revival in the hearts of children in sub-Saharan Africa through dignifying their spirits and supporting their rights to enriched learning experiences.

We work together with schools, churches, corporations and individuals in Africa and around the world to create and implement empowering initiatives that improve the educational experiences and learning of children.

We focus on grassroots initiatives with African partners to best impact the educational opportunities of children.

We are 100% volunteers who collect no salaries and receive no government funding. We rely strictly upon donations from the public. Over $0.97 of each dollar we raise goes DIRECTLY to overseas programs and initiatives impacting children.