A Decade in Pursuit of Kony: The Unorthodox Ways of Building a Movement

Speaker:

Bobby Bailey

09 Apr 2012

8:00 PM

Sun Room, Memorial Union

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Bobby Bailey is cofounder of Invisible Children. He and two friends established the organization in 2005 after a life-changing trip to Africa, where they discovered the story of the children in Northern Uganda who were being abducted from their homes and forced to fight as child soldiers by the rebel group the Lords Resistance Army. After returning home they made the documentary Invisible Children: Rough Cut and began screening it at high schools, colleges and churches. The organization now engages youth around the world, using the power of film, social media and storytelling to connect them in a very personal way to sustainable development programs in Uganda. Its recent video "Kony 2012" went viral, helping to make the LRA and Joseph Kony's alleged crimes more widely known and prompting the African Union to deploy troops to capture the rebel leader. Part of the World Affairs Series.

Invisible Children has reached over 3 million people and raised over $25 Million Dollars for awareness, advocacy and development programs. In 2010, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law to remove Joseph Kony from power and save the lives of millions of Ugandan citizens - largely as a result of Invisible Children's efforts. This month the African Union announced it plans to deploy 5,000 troops to hunt down Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of the Lord's Resistance Army who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.