Because I Said So: Child Soldier Awareness Week shows us we shouldn’t just be informed
One of the few things nearly every human can agree on is that this world has a lot of problems. From hunger and disease to crime and poverty, there are plenty of things we all wish we could change—or, at least, we wish someone else would change. But simply knowing about these problems doesn’t aid humanity, because at the end of the day, awareness without action is useless.
Today begins Uganda Child Soldier Awareness Week, a time dedicated to informing the public about the unfortunate and despicable war raging in Uganda since 1989. Countless children have fallen victim to this tragedy. Joseph Kony, the vile leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, has forced young girls to become “wives” to the soldiers of his army, subjecting them to rape and subsequent pregnancy. These young mothers are then shunned by their community, leaving them with little to no hope for a brighter future.
If children are not raped, many are forced into the army itself. These innocent victims are thus brainwashed into becoming the actual perpetrators of war. Nothing is more revolting than the forced loss of innocence, and these children are experiencing it firsthand.
You are now aware of what’s happening in Uganda. More details are available, of course, but you can no longer plead ignorance. If awareness is the ultimate end, I should just stop writing now.
But awareness should never be an end. Awareness should always be the means by which we are motivated into action. Fortunately, we have an excellent example of this coming to JMU during this week, and her name is Sarita Hartz.
Hartz, a JMU alumna (’02), spent five months living in Uganda in 2006. After witnessing firsthand the plight of Ugandan child soldiers, she was most certainly aware of the horror facing innocent children. But Hartz understood that awareness alone wasn’t enough. Instead of just mourning over what she had seen, she translated it into an organization called Zion Project.
On the organization’s Web site Hartz writes, “Tired of reading headlines and feeling powerless to do something, I felt compelled to begin something that would have movement and encourage people to take action.”
The key words are “take action.” Hartz doesn’t write, “I wanted to form an organization so that everyone would know more facts about Uganda.” Like she said, we can read about Uganda in a newspaper headline, but that doesn’t fix the problem. Zion Project is designed to get past “awareness” and eventually bring child soldiers back to their homes, offer them counseling, educate them and train them to take on the world.
Hartz is a wonderful example of what more of us need to be doing. Sure, we’re not all going to start nonprofit organizations, but that shouldn’t stop us from transforming “informed citizen” into active agents of change.
Some of us are gifted in teaching. Let us use those skills to educate the less fortunate, even if it’s only through reading to an after-school program. Others are excellent carpenters. Use those abilities to rebuild New Orleans, even if it’s only for the duration of an ASB trip. Some of us are simply good listeners. Use that gift to visit with the homeless at Little Grill Collective right here in Harrisonburg. We’re not all called to Uganda, but we’re all called to action.
So instead of using this week to simply learn about another sad thing in the world, let’s make Uganda Child Soldier Awareness Week an opportunity to get involved. Inform yourself about the problem, and then donate your time or money to finding a solution. Maybe this week you’ll discover that Uganda isn’t your niche. That’s perfectly fine—there’s a place for you somewhere. But let us remember the importance of action, for awareness alone doesn’t solve anything; after all, simply knowing that Nyquil exists doesn’t relieve your cold.
Kathryn Manning is a senior history and political science major.
