That attention ranged from ecstatic praise to bewilderment to some hard-hitting critiques. Some of those critiques were thoughtful and constructive, and others were misinformed and careless. Throughout the entire wild process, it was important to us that we commit ourselves to a balanced response; one that would enable us to stay true to our mission with vision and confidence, and well as the openness and humility to learn and grow.
The conversations that emerged in the wake of the campaign, within our own walls and around the world, helped pave the way for the important conversations we are having today about how to thoughtfully, effectively, and humbly engage in the work of justice and human rights, especially for those of us seeking to be helpful allies to those experiences injustice first-hand.
Our world has changed a lot since , and so have we. For us, moving forward means that we are constantly engaging with local and international experts, innovating, and adapting solutions that effectively address the challenges facing vulnerable communities. What does that look like, practically?
These programs help protect communities from violent attacks by armed groups, recover from conflict, trauma, and exploitation, and build a thriving future that breaks cycles of violence. And we continue to be driven by our commitment to dedicated local leaders who have become close partners and dear friends. That commitment has always pushed us to think creatively and get gritty when we have to! Case in point: Since , as international donors have shifted their resources to other crises around the world, the number of international NGOs in LRA-affected areas of DRC dropped from 19 to three.
We stayed. And we continue to work hard to keep our commitments to the safety of LRA-affected communities. As we move forward, we remain inspired by the courage and resilience of the central Africa community leaders who guide our work.
Critics say the group may be putting many more people at far greater risk — not just its employees, but the very people it aims to help. Invisible Children's Congolese headquarters sits in the center of Dungu, just steps from a United Nations peacekeeping outpost. The LRA attacked the city in , briefly terrorized the population, then fanned out into the surrounding wilderness.
International agencies followed in their wake and, for a time, turned Dungu into something of an NGO boomtown. Today, U. Concertina wire rings the U. Unless you charter a plane or hitch a ride on a military transport, you must arrive in Dungu by sport utility vehicle, a spine-rattling hour journey on pockmarked dirt roads through one of the poorest, most isolated regions of Africa. Joseph, a playful year-old who favors cowboy suits and dashikis, commands the base and two fellow operators, Floribert and Ferdinand.
Invisible Children runs a separate, smaller radio network across the border in the Central African Republic, where the LRA is also active. Floribert conducts the afternoon ronde, checking in with a far-flung volunteer operator. On my first day in Dungu, Floribert began the morning ronde. The three men huddled around the radio receiver for two hours, scratchy voices filling the darkened room with the grim details of the attack.
In the courtyard was a wall decorated with murals drawn by recently returned child soldiers — blood, gore, and remarkably accurate depictions of AKs, heavy machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. Right: Prosper, the office engineer, reviews the site of a recent attack with Camille Marie-Regnault. The four-day rampage was brutal, even by LRA standards: Rebels tied victims to trees and crushed their skulls with axes and burned to death a 3-year-old girl. But the region is so isolated that details of the attacks took more than three months to emerge; Human Rights Watch published the first comprehensive account in March Shannon Sedgwick Davis, the CEO of Bridgeway Foundation, the charitable arm of a Texas hedge fund that donates half of its after-tax profits to organizations working to end genocide, learned about them only after speaking with Ida Sawyer, the Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote the report.
Davis asked what her foundation could do to help combat the LRA. She set to work improving both. To help the UPDF chase Kony across the rugged central African bush, Davis also contracted with a private air transit company to provide the Ugandans with a bush plane and Bell helicopter for their exclusive use.
To manage the radio network, Invisible Children hired Camille Marie-Regnault, from France, and Pauline Zerla, a Belgian with a family connection to the region: Her mother was born in Leopoldville now Kinshasa to a bureaucrat in the Belgian Congo colonial administration.
Marie-Regnault, 26, and Zerla, 30, are upbeat and tireless when we meet, often working hour days in the field. I asked what would happen if the LRA came upon us now. Zerla and Marie-Regnault have worked hard to increase cooperation with troops working to rout the LRA from the region, which by the time the two were hired in included Ugandan and Congolese soldiers, U. Invisible Children has refused, though it would not be difficult for the U.
I had more luck with Lt. Islam Arif, a Bangladeshi officer tasked at the time to the U. Arif explained that the early-warning network is integral to his intelligence gathering.
Invisible Children is the only NGO invited to his weekly intelligence meetings. As our interview wrapped up, Marie-Regnault entered the office, and Arif gave her a double-cheek kiss.
The military alliance is just as tight across the border in Obo, an even more remote settlement in the Central African Republic that is essentially a 3-mile dirt road connecting the Ugandan military base on one end and the AFRICOM and U. Between and , U. At night the front yard glows with the smartphone screens of soldiers trying to poach their wireless internet.
Zerla was posted in Obo for two years, and during that time she was known to sprint across the airfield to alert Ugandan officers about actionable intelligence. Invisible Children sees nothing remarkable about its military cooperation. But its approach contrasts sharply with other nonprofits in the region. CRS, however, does not share its data directly with the U.
The American Red Cross has long set the industry standard for independence from armed actors. While the Red Cross works with governments, militaries, and rebel groups to provide emergency medical services, a spokeswoman told me, it enforces a policy of neutrality in war zones.
Later, he took a job at Bridgeway to help coordinate the effort. Left: Joseph, right, helps lead a training for volunteer operators who near Garamba National Park. Rangers want to use Invisible Children's radio network to track poachers. Invisible Children is expanding its cooperation with armed actors who want access to its valuable intelligence network. The park recently created an intelligence unit, led by a French army veteran, to coordinate the movements of rangers armed with AKs and a Bell helicopter.
Ugandan officials have also said the LRA is no longer a threat to Ugandan territory. The Ugandan defense ministry recently estimated that fewer than LRA fighters remain in the field. The area in which Kony and his men roam is roughly comparable to the state of Texas in size. Evidence exists that Kony and his gang make money from poaching, smuggling elephant ivory and -- possibly -- smuggling precious minerals. The filmmakers packed their video with emotional and sensational appeals.
They demanded that Kony be brought to justice by December 31, , and definitely went all-in on arresting Kony. That the technology which has brought our planet together is allowing us to respond to the problems of our friends. Yet Kony is still at large.
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