First Published Piece, Ever.

"So What Exactly Are Kids Doing These Days?"  
by Vivekananda Nemana
For Crossings Magazine, published on November 20, 2007. 

Note: This was written way back when I first started to flirt with the idea of journalism. I was young and still  involved in the whole human rights scene (it's interesting to see how different my writing was back then). And I desperately wanted to get published. One day a certain Jorge Vargas came along, saying he was the Editor-in-Chief of a small online magazine and that he'd like someone to write a feature about Child(Not)Soldier, a club I helped to start. Perhaps it wasn't ethical for me to write about a club I was a founding member of, but it was a welcome twist of fate.  Today, I am the senior writer for Crossings' Human Rights department and assistant editor of their Arts section. 

Picture yourself as you are right now. Perhaps you're wearing comfortable designer clothing while sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned, and well-lit bedroom, most likely in front of a relatively new computer, in a comfortable area of town that's dependably patrolled by the police. If so, then smile, because I'll bet that you're comfortable. 

Now, imagine that the comfortable designer outfit you have on is instead an old, battered, uncomfortable set of clothes handed down to you by the government or an aid worker. Imagine that your entire wardrobe actually consisted of just that and maybe another similar set. Take the nice, comfortable building you're in and exchange it with a dilapidated shack or an overcrowded, disease-infested refugee camp in a war-devastated country. Don't even think about frivolities such as air-conditioning and proper electricity. And you've never seen a computer or sent a text message in your life. Hungry? Don't worry...maybe you'll be lucky enough to eat again tomorrow. And forget about the police...they've been replaced by a dangerous rebel group looking to kidnap you and force you to kill. 

My question to you is, what next? How do you live when staying alive is priority number one? What happens to your dreams? 

Audience members were pressed to ask themselves these questions during Invisible Children's visit to New York University on Monday, October 15, hosted by the campus group Child(Not)Soldier. Invisible Children, an organization dedicated to improving the situation of children afflicted by civil war in Northern Uganda, screened their documentaries Invisible Children and Black is for Sunday. Representatives from Invisible Children and Child(Not)Soldier also gave speeches about the situation of children in Northern Uganda and other war-torn areas, and about "Schools for Schools," an initiative to raise money for these children's education. The event was organized to spread awareness about the issue of child soldiers, a serious problem in Northern Uganda, as children are often kidnapped from their homes by rebels and forced to fight in the war. 

Invisible Children, filmed in 2003 by the organization of the same name, details the experience of three Californian students as they discover the enormous toll that civil war in Uganda has on children. The children, fueled by fears of abduction, commute nightly in massive numbers from their homes to a hospital in order to find a safe place to sleep. Invisible Children's namesake comes from the idea that African children, unlike Western children, tend to be ignored and denied opportunities to improve their future, and are thus "invisible," having to stand their own ground against society instead of being supported by it. Through candid interviews and portrayals of Ugandans from all walks of life, including the "night commuter" children, the film successfully captures how pervasive this way of thinking is in Uganda. 

Black is for Sunday, Invisible Children's second major film, focuses on Sunday, a 15-year-old boy living in a refugee camp for internally displaced Ugandans. Although Sunday is incredibly bright, he is an orphan and thus must provide for himself (and also for his community), a handicap that severely constrains his potential. Sunday is the emblematic refugee child, who dreams of escape and education but can have neither due to the downward-spiral way of life in camps and conflict areas. Both the films focus on the lack of opportunities for Ugandan children and urge action before these children become adults, and can no longer be saved. 

I like to think of myself as someone who generally doesn't cry, but I couldn't stop the tears from welling up while I watched Jacob, a young Ugandan boy featured in Invisible Children, narrate his tale. In order to avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the main Northern Ugandan rebel group that kidnaps children to use as soldiers, Jacob and his brother Thomas, with no other family, live in hiding. "I have nothing!" he exclaims, and then, remembering his older brother who was abducted and killed by the LRA, is overwhelmed with emotion. The effect of the earnest suffering, the hesitant tears, and the underlying vein of human resilience is stirring, and although I could not directly relate to Jacob, his sincere display of emotion evoked my deepest empathy. 

Looking around at the 50-odd others who were there, I noticed I wasn't the only one moved by this scene (and by the rest of the movie, too). The film captivated the entire audience. It makes sense. Invisible Children and Black is for Sunday are two incredibly poignant documentaries which ignited nationwide movements, involving mostly high school and college students, to improve conditions for children in Northern Uganda. Last year, for example, these movements raised $1.2 million through Schools for Schools. 

These grassroots movements are the foundation stones of the Invisible Children non-profit. Heralding the slogan "Can a story change the world?" and the Gandhian tenet to "be the change you wish to see," Invisible Children chapters around the country raised money and awareness for the Ugandan children. In addition, the group also organized the "Global Night Commute," in April of 2006, a simulation of nightly commute many Ugandan children faced. According to the Invisible Children website, the Global Night Commute drew 80,000 participants and encouraged the United States government to "take historic steps with legislation that will create stability in Northern Uganda and bring peace to the invisible children." 

Globally, then, exactly how big is this problem of child soldiers? A child soldier is defined as any person under the age of 18 being used in armed conflict. In Northern Uganda itself, over 30,000 children have been abducted for use in the war. According to the UNICEF Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, there are an estimated 250,000 children under the age of 18 actively fighting as soldiers in over 33 countries, while over half a million children have been recruited for use in armed conflict. 

Child soldiers, particularly those who have been kidnapped and forced into fighting, live in a state beyond fear. In some of the worst conflict areas, such as Sierra Leone or Uganda, they are often abducted at an age too young to be independent, and are then faced with an almost-Pavlovian conditioning process to train them to kill. They witness their comrades get brutally murdered as "examples" to the children--if you don't do as we say, this will be your fate, too. Fear is accordingly used as the driving force in these armies of children. 

In addition to killing, child soldiers are also grossly exposed to and exploited for hard drugs and sex. In Sierra Leone, for example, children were reportedly drugged and then sent to kill their own parents as an "initiation rite." Ishmael Beah, a former Leonean child soldier who now lives in New York City, recounts in his memoirs that amphetamine addiction as well as pressure from the army prevented him from attempting to escape on his own. In Liberia, young girls were repeatedly raped and kept as "wives" for army and rebel commanders. The unimaginable stories continue; even in Hollywood such horror is rare, yet it continues to happen to real children in real conflicts in real countries around the world. 

Tales such as these inspired a group of young students at New York University last year to take action. After learning in detail about African child soldiers in their freshman seminar on 20th century United Nations operations and realizing that the severity of child soldiering was generally unknown and unacknowledged, Yang-Yang Zhou, Eric Min, Isha Dandavate, and Tajah Patel teamed up to create Child(Not)Soldier to raise awareness about the issue. 

Armed with a grant from Youth Venture, an organization that offers financial and logistical support to young people interested in social entrepreneurship, the kids from Child(Not)Soldier began spreading their message on the NYU campus. They organized movie screenings, invited guest speakers, passed fliers to fellow students, and successfully got the word out. Today, Child(Not)Soldier schedules weekly meetings to discuss the issue of child soldiers worldwide, not just in Africa. They still organize events; the Invisible Children screening I attended couldn't have happened without their work. They participate actively in Schools for Schools and raised several hundred dollars so far, which can go a long way in improving schooling in Africa. Despite being around for only a year, they are well on their way to increasing awareness about child soldiers among their peers and helping to educate underprivileged kids (an excellent investment and effective protection against child soldiering). 

The Child(Not)Soldier team members are just normal college students who, like the founders of Invisible Children, started off with an idea and a touch of inspiration. They were completely new to the prospect of a humanitarian organization when they first started, but because they didn't let that deter them they learned, and were able to make progress. The point is that improvements and big changes in the world aren't caused by people who are predestined to make them happen; they are caused by people who see something they want to change, and then have to guts to act on it. Forgive me if that sounds horribly cliched (because it is), but it's a truism that has proved itself repeatedly in the instance of Child(Not)Soldier, Invisible Children, and countless other organizations that make a positive impact. Jason Russell, the president of Invisible Children, once said that "the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who actually do." 

So if you're reading this, and feeling quite comfortable in your surroundings, you don't need to feel guilty. Just make a contribution, and watch the ripples expand into the sea.