Invisible Children’s Displace Me event was held this weekend. The goal was to raise awareness generally about the war in Uganda, and more specifically about the plight of children who travel away from home each night to avoid being recruited as soldiers and that of internally displaced people. Participants in the Displace Me event – over 5300 in Chicago, 7000 in Los Angeles and 67,000 altogether in the US – were asked to arrive at a pre-arranged location in each town where they would camp for the night, bearing enough cardboard to build a small shelter, one bottle of water and a box of saltines. These requirements were set in order to simulate the conditions under which refugees in Uganda live: in simple structures, and reliant on others to distribute food aid and water. The saltines and water were collected from participants upon arrival and redistributed later to give insight, however brief, into what refugees experience.

In a related event, and for a related cause, a J-Serve group in Kansas City held a fundraiser over the same weekend in Kansas City. The proceeds were split between Invisible Children and the Change the Truth Fund; you may remember this fund started by photographer Gloria, who spent three weeks in Uganda documenting the story of children in different orphanages in the country. You can read more about the event on Gloria’s blog – find the link in the initial Volunteer Logue post on her work.