April 23, 2009

A local demonstration to raise awareness about abducted Ugandan children will culminate at California State University, Fresno. The RESCUE Fresno event on Saturday, April 25, is part of a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the Ugandan children being abducted to fight wars and urge an end to the war there.

The Social Work Student Association at Fresno State and The Invisible Children organization will begin the event with a 2.5 mile walk at 3 p.m. from People’s Church to the Fresno State campus, where the event will continue through the night until 8 a.m. Sunday. Similar walks and demonstrations are being held throughout the world.

The worldwide campaign is sponsored by Invisible Children, a media-based organization dedicated to ending Africa’s longest-running war through a social, political and global movement.

Those walking will represent abducted children who are forced to walk to training camps, and the demonstration represents a symbolic effort to rescue the children, said Kelly Mitchinson, a former Fresno State student who is a point coordinator for the Invisible Children STREET TEAM and The RESCUE Fresno event.

Nearly 500 people are expected to participate, she said.

“The event aims to raise awareness and elicit compassion for the 3,000 plus child soldiers who have been abducted in Northern Uganda as a part of what the U.N is calling the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world,” Mitchinson said. “On this day in over 100 cities and 10 countries across the world, we will join with humanity and take a stand for what we want to see changed.”

Carlos Garcia, a senior social work major and president of the Social Work Student Association, said, “Fresno State demonstrators will stand in solidarity with their counterparts alongside the reflection pool of Washington, D.C., the Sydney Opera House of Australia, and The Zocalo of Mexico City. We will stay in solidarity with the abducted children that are being forced to fight in Northern Uganda since the brutal rebel army consists of 90 percent kidnapped children.”

The walk begins at People’s Church at Cedar and Alluvial avenues north of Herndon. Fresno State students, joined by other area students and members of the community, will walk south on Cedar to the Fresno State campus, east on Barstow Avenue and south on Maple to the Agriculture Building and the lawn west of the Satellite Student Union.

Participants will write letters to politicians as well as create art projects to promote awareness of the abducted child soldiers.

For more information, contact Christopher Keller at 559.905.4336, Mitchinson at 709.7624 Therescue.Fresno@gmail.com or Garcia at 270-4564.