Students to screen Kony documentary
Published 8:31 pm Saturday, April 7, 2012
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Four International Baccalaureate students from King’s Fork High are planning to have a documentary about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony shown at school.
Short films documenting the terror wrought by a Ugandan indicted for war crimes have moved four students to raise awareness of Joseph Kony at King’s Fork High School.
Alexis Brueggeman, Ezinnne Nnawulezi, Nancy Angelelli and Erica Billmeyer, International Baccalaureate students in grade 11, were introduced to Kony and his horrific exploits by their biology and Theory of Knowledge teacher, Sherri Story, according to Brueggeman.
Story showed them films documenting Kony’s offenses, made for Invisible Children, an organization working to raise awareness of Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army.
According to the documentaries and other reports, Kony is responsible for the abduction of children for sex slaves and soldiers in the LRA.
Nnawulezi said the abductions presented in the documentaries “affected me a lot, because it’s going on and nobody recognizes this.”
For Angelelli, footage of a boy recounting his plight at the hands of Kony “touched a nerve with me.”
“He was crying and telling about the horrible situation that’s going on there,” Angelelli said.
Billmeyer said other ordinary people are trying to do something about the situation and “I feel like I should try to do something as well.”
The students want to raise awareness of Kony and his deeds, as well as money for Invisible Children, Brueggeman said.
They will do so by having an anti-Kony documentary screened during advisory block, “to inform students of what Invisible Children is,” Brueggeman said.
King’s Fork principal Suzanne Moore said she is happy to support the students’ efforts after investigating Invisible Children’s credentials.
“I had to do some research myself, because I wasn’t familiar with the organization,” she said. “I didn’t want them raising money for something that’s not a valid, reliable organization.”
She said the girls are good examples of the global citizens her school seeks to produce.
“I always support the students when they’re trying to do some sort of community service,” she said. “In this case, they’re talking about the global community, and we want students to be part of the global community.”
Invisible Children has been accused of sensationalizing the specter of Kony in order to win supporters.
After going viral, its Kony 2012 video was reportedly viewed over the Internet at least 100 million times.
Kony 2012: Part II, the sequel which the four King’s Fork High students plan to have screened, was only released on You Tube on Wednesday.
According to an Invisible Children fundraising website set up by Story, 25,000 children have been abducted by Kony and the LRA since 1986.
“Now it’s up to us to go to the frontline of our communities, telling this story and raising the money needed for Invisible Children’s life-saving projects,” the page says.