Kony School Speech
In 1915, the ANZACs landed on the beach at Gallipoli, and every year on the 25th of April we remember all their sacrifices. There were men as young as 16 fighting, but most of them were above 18.
War is always for the young people.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you will all know about the Joseph Kony campaign – child soldiers in Africa – many of them as young as 10. Also the well-known YouTube clip with nearly 87 million views, targeted at young people around the globe. That is why this year, we want to not only remember ANZAC day, but by focusing on the ‘Make Kony Famous’ campaign because of that link with us, young people.
Our goal is to support your involvement with humanitarian causes, but to also be informed about the complexities.
One thing that we can all agree on is that Joseph Kony is the bad guy. What’s actually happened, and what we should do, is a different story. So let’s clear some things up.
Kony leads the Lord’s Resistance Army, and for the past three decades they have abducted 30,000 children. Over the years, they have been the reason behind nearly 2 million Internally Displaced People in Central Africa. In 2006, they left Uganda and have been no way near as active. The footage shown in the video portrays the living conditions in Uganda as they were about 6 years ago. But the conditions there have improved dramatically; currently it’s all a matter of post-conflict recovery.
Although the clips were completely heart-wrenching, we need to ask ourselves what the facts are. Since December 2009, there have been 2400 reported abductions in surrounding places such as north-eastern Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
Thus, yes, the LRA is still active. On a smaller scale, yes, but people are still being abducted and killed throughout Africa. Are we going to dismiss this issue as one of the past, and let the LRA carry on like this? Should we say it doesn’t matter because it’s not
War is always for the young people.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you will all know about the Joseph Kony campaign – child soldiers in Africa – many of them as young as 10. Also the well-known YouTube clip with nearly 87 million views, targeted at young people around the globe. That is why this year, we want to not only remember ANZAC day, but by focusing on the ‘Make Kony Famous’ campaign because of that link with us, young people.
Our goal is to support your involvement with humanitarian causes, but to also be informed about the complexities.
One thing that we can all agree on is that Joseph Kony is the bad guy. What’s actually happened, and what we should do, is a different story. So let’s clear some things up.
Kony leads the Lord’s Resistance Army, and for the past three decades they have abducted 30,000 children. Over the years, they have been the reason behind nearly 2 million Internally Displaced People in Central Africa. In 2006, they left Uganda and have been no way near as active. The footage shown in the video portrays the living conditions in Uganda as they were about 6 years ago. But the conditions there have improved dramatically; currently it’s all a matter of post-conflict recovery.
Although the clips were completely heart-wrenching, we need to ask ourselves what the facts are. Since December 2009, there have been 2400 reported abductions in surrounding places such as north-eastern Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
Thus, yes, the LRA is still active. On a smaller scale, yes, but people are still being abducted and killed throughout Africa. Are we going to dismiss this issue as one of the past, and let the LRA carry on like this? Should we say it doesn’t matter because it’s not