Abducted and Rescued

On Saturday, April 25th, thousands of people worldwide, including myself, were abducted.

We were participants in The Rescue, an event organized by Invisible Children to raise awareness of the plight of child soldiers in Uganda. Under the leadership of Joseph Kony, families have been displaced and ripped apart. Children are abducted to serve as soldiers in Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army which was originally supposedly formed in order to usurp the Ugandan Goverment so a theocracy could be installed. However, the fighting has now moved into the neighboring Republic of the Congo, signaling that Kony is no longer content to just control one nation.

The Rescue took place in 100 cities world wide. Endorsed by celebrities such as Pete Wentz and Kristen Bell, the goal was for volunteers to arrive at a designated “Abduction” point where we then marched, single file and holding a rope, to a mock-LRA campsite. This was in order to simulate the marches the child soldiers are forced on. Once at the site, protestors camped out, writing letters, creating art projects and making friends. The abduction in each city lasted until two conditions were met:

• Local media was sent out to cover the event
• A local mogul (politician or celebrity) arrived to speak on behalf of the child soldiers

Some cities were rescued almost immediately. Some waited all night and into the following day, occasionally in pouring rainstorms and freezing weather, until someone would come and rescue them. As of this writing, some cities are STILL waiting to be rescued.

Some cool stuff for you to check out:

• Some shots I grabbed at the Pittsburgh event.
• Awesome shots that Jesisbogus grabbed in Santa Monica, CA.
• Jillypeppa’s great pictures and write up of the event in New York City.
• Doroteathegreat got this fantastic shot as well as some others in her gallery!
• Arianalena posted some of her pictures, too!
• Piglee got some fantastic shots at the Washington, DC event, including a few of Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump addresing the crowd!
• Video of comedian Jeff Foxworthy coming out to act as the mogul for Atlanta, GA.
• Steaming Twitter updates from those who have been rescued as well as those still waiting to be. Technology is awesome.
• Rob Dyer of Skate 4 Cancer uploaded some pictures of himself at a Rescue event.

EDIT: IF YOU COULDN’T ATTEND AND STILL WANT TO HELP: VISIT THE TWITTER FEED ABOVE OR THE OFFICIAL NIGHT OF THE RESCUE SITE TO SEE WHICH CITIES HAVE NOT YET BEEN RESCUED AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM! BY CONTACTING NEWS MEDIA AND MOGULS, YOU CAN HELP SEND THE MESSAGE AS WELL!

UPDATE: 5/1/09 – ALL CITIES HAVE BEEN RESCUED! CHICAGO FINALLY ACHIEVED THEIR GOAL OF GETTING THE ATTENTION OF OPRAH AND HER PRODUCERS. IF YOU CAN WATCH OPRAH TODAY, PLEASE DO, AS THEY WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE RESCUE ON THE SHOW!

If you attended a local event and have pictures and/or video, then you can either leave a link to the in the comments or PM me and I will add them to this post! Share with the Buzznet community how you were a part of this world changing event.