Miami Herald - April 15, 2008
David Rodriguez, drodriguez@MiamiHerald.com

Thousands of children orphaned by war or AIDS in Uganda are largely invisible to most Americans.

That is no longer the case for some students at Mater Academy Charter School in Hialeah Gardens. On Friday, they attended a free screening of Invisible Children, a 55-minute documentary film made by three young South California men in 2003 about the children and their struggles in their war-torn African nation.

Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole traveled to Africa in search of a story to tell with their camera. When they visited northern Uganda, they learned of the children who had lost almost all of their families to AIDS or violence and who commuted every night to cities to sleep on concrete floors.

During the day, most of the children would stay in houses to avoid soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has waged a civil war for nearly 20 years, kidnapping children and pressing them into service as bodyguards for LAR officials and as killers.

Two years after completing filming, Russell, Bailey and Poole founded Invisible Children Inc., a nonprofit organization that collects funds to help build schools and provide food and homes for the children. Their efforts have moved people such as Anilen Holcombe, guidance counselor at Mater Academy Charter School, 7901 NW 103rd St., to get involved in the initiative.

"Learning about the lives of these children, what they have to go through, is a sobering experience," said Holcombe, who helped organize a fundraiser with the school's clubs, along with screening of the documentary, with proceeds going to Invisible Children Inc.

According to Holcombe, the event was planned more than a year in advance as part of Invisible Children Inc.'s "School to School" program in which teens from different backgrounds travel from South California to other states to show the documentary at schools and universities. The stop at Mater Academy was on the last leg of a journey that covered almost 80 Florida schools in three months.

This labor of love has a two-fold benefit, impacting lives in Uganda and also changing lives in the United States, "raising awareness and inspiring activism," said Steve Douglas, a Pittsburgh native who received his English degree in 2006 and joined the tour in California when a friend told him about Invisible Children Inc.

Both students and teachers at Mater Academy helped organize the fundraiser after several had seen the documentary as part of class activities. Kristina Vidal, a senior, was so moved when she saw it in an American history class a year ago she began researching Invisible Children Inc. to get involved with it and she became head of the Invisible Children's committee at her school.

"We organized this event not only for the children but also for their parents and families, as well," said Kristina, who wants to study international relations and work at an embassy in Africa. "They need to learn about the situation in Africa as much as the students."

Members of the audience reacted to the documentary by gasping, flinching and occasionally laughing at the adventures of the three filmmakers who learned of the "invisible children" and saw first-hand their hunger, their fear for their lives in broad daylight, their oppression and their resolve to live.

"It makes you want to get up and tell others about what is going on, so no one forgets," said Esteban Jaramillo, whose school organization, the Key Club, is looking into a possible trip to Africa next summer.

"I just wish all children at the school saw the movie and learned of other places in the world," said Juan Puentes, a parent, who went to the screening.

After the screening of the film, audience members took part in a ceremony lighting luminarias for the children of Uganda who have fallen prey to violence.

Though it was not the first time many students and teachers had seen the documentary, it still provokes a strong response.

For them, its message goes beyond what the film shows about Ugandan children. Such is the case with math professor Maria Montero, who had shown Invisible Children in her class.

"If three boys from California were able to create this with nothing but a camera, what is really stopping anyone from Hialeah Gardens from creating something as powerful?" Montero said.

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