Invisible Children Hosts Global Event: THE RESCUE, 1 Day - 100 Cities - 9 Countries 4/25

Jon M. Chu, Amy Eldon and Jon Turteltaub, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Jay Baruchel, Chris Lowell, Daniel Sunjata and more “Rescuers” to be announced will join Invisible Children co-founder and filmmaker Laren Poole for an overnight worldwide rally on behalf of the abducted child soldiers of Uganda and the Congo.

On April 25th 2009, Invisible Children (IC), an organization dedicated to ending Africa’s longest-running war, will host The Rescue: a 100-city, nine country rally to inspire attention to the plight of children abducted and forced to fight as soldiers in Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has been terrorizing Central East Africa for the past 23 years.  A war originally contained within Uganda’s borders has now evolved into a widespread regional crisis, prompting massive international attention.

The Rescue, birthed out of a 30-minute documentary made by IC, is a radically unique event, requiring participants to ‘abduct themselves for the abducted.’  Tens of thousands of people will travel by foot to a location in each city that will become their ‘LRA base.’  They will refuse to leave until a politician, mogul or local celebrity ‘Rescues’ them by making a public statement on behalf of the child soldiers.

This event will be taking place on Saturday, April 25, 2009 starting at New York City Hall - “Abduction Site”. Participants will walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. The ending location is  Empire Fulton Ferry State Park - “LRA Bbase”.

Joseph Kony’s terrors include the abduction of 70,000 people, mostly children turned into soldiers, the massacre of tens of thousands and the forceful displacement of millions.  Because of such actions, Joseph Kony has been deemed the world’s first war criminal, the first man indicted by the International Criminal Court, ratified by 108 member countries, with an international warrant out for his arrest.  The Rescue hopes to set a precedent that such crimes against humanity will not be tolerated by the international community by rescuing Kony’s child soldiers and bringing him to justice. 

Invisible Children is a social, political and global movement that uses the transformative power of story to change lives.  The organization was created after the release of the 2004 film “Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” a revealing documentary about the plight of child soldiers in northern Uganda.