After painting an Ugandan child’s face on a canvas in
bright colors, Lydia Kim attempted to destroy the cloth with razor
blade scratches and sandpaper to better represent the suppression
of the child’s dreams.
But to her surprise, Kim, a second-year English student, said
the distressed painting became more beautiful. To her it became a
better symbol of the potential that still exists for children
enduring the violence imposed on them from a militia group in
Uganda.
“They’ve been trampled and beaten down, but I
believe that they can overcome the horrors they’ve been
through,” Kim said.
Kim’s painting, “(Not so) Broken Promises,” is
one of the works at an art show called “Breaking the
Silence” put on by UCLA’s chapter of Invisible
Children, a national group which aims to stop child abduction in
Uganda.
For the past 21 years, a militia group in Uganda has imposed its
military violence on more than 100,000 children, some as young as 5
years old, and have trained these children to become soldiers,
according to the United Nations.
The art show, which is on display in Kerckhoff Hall Art Gallery
through Friday, is the first of several events aimed at informing
students of the situation in Uganda and raising money for the
cause.
The artworks’ auction money will go toward the national
Invisible Children headquarters to help fund refugee and education
programs for children in Uganda, said Jenny Hofmeister, assistant
director of Invisible Children.
Funds will also be used to create an American opposition that
will put pressure on Ugandan politicians to put an immediate stop
to child abductions, Hofmeister said.
By connecting the humanitarian community with the art community,
Invisible Children student officers said they hope to inspire
students from all over campus to become part of their effort.
“The whole movement is unique because it started with a
documentary made by film majors who urged students to (use) their
talents ““ whatever they are ““ to fight this,”
said Anthony Halim, co-director of the Invisible Children group at
UCLA.
The documentary “Invisible Children,” from which the
initiative gets its name, attracted the attention and spurred the
involvement of many students last year through several on-campus
screenings.
The film, which was first released in 2003, documented the
journeys of several children who walk many miles everyday and sleep
in a different locations every night to escape abduction from the
Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel militia group.
According to the Invisible Children Web site, many children who
are caught are trained to be soldiers and charged with the mission
of killing other children.
Because the problem has gone unnoticed and unrecorded for
decades, the filmmakers have given the victims the name
“invisible children.”
Other programs the organization has held include the Global
Night Commute earlier this year, which mimicked the daily walk the
Ugandan children make. Students marched five miles back and forth
from UCLA to the Santa Monica City Council building.
In the case of the art show, artists and musicians who performed
at the show’s opening Tuesday night used their creative
talents to reach people about the situation abroad and to raise
money for the cause, said Halim.
The show also includes montages of photos and stories of Ugandan
children who have been soldiers or sex slaves.
Halim said that connecting individual faces to the problem
creates a huge emotional impact.
Among the stories included is that of a young boy refugee named
Ofonyo Innocent who hopes to one day be president of a reformed and
just Uganda.
Another is of Grace Innocent, who was made a sex slave at the
age of 10 and gave birth to the product of her rape before becoming
a teenager. Unlike male soldiers who can come back to their
villages and try to rebuild their lives, females with babies from
rape are outcasts. Nonetheless, Grace named her child Opoyo Rwot,
which means “thank God.”
According to Halim, the Lord’s Resistance Army, was
initially funded by the same politicians supporting genocide in
Darfur.
Halim also said the Darfur Action Committee on campus has been
very supportive of UCLA’s chapter of Invisible Children and
is hoping to coordinate a benefit with them by the end of the
school year.
Students interested in joining
Invisible Children can send an e-mail to
icvolunteer@gmail.com.