On Thursday, May 7, a group of students were surprised when Jason Russell, one of the founders of Invisible Children, came to speak to them in Professor Crystal Murphy’s Politics of Humanitarianism class.

ABOUT INVISIBLE CHILDREN:

Invisible Children, Inc. is an organization founded in 2004 to bring awareness to the activities of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, and its leader, Joseph Kony. Specifically, the group seeks to put an end to the practices of the LRA which include abductions and abuse of children, and forcing them to serve as soldiers. To this end, Invisible Children urges the United States government to take military action in the central region of Africa. Invisible Children also operates as a charitable organization, soliciting donations and selling merchandise to raise money for their cause. The organization promotes its cause by dispensing films on the internet and presenting in high schools and colleges around the United States.

“What I thought was just going to be an incredible talk about how media impacts humanitarianism and how they created the Kony 2012 movement, ending up being even better,” said Mor Albalak (’15).

Apart from talking about the creation of Invisible Children and their part in humanitarianism, they talked about how they got to where they are and what inspires them to get up every day and do something good in the world.

“As someone who is actually about to graduate in less than two weeks, what I want to do with my life has been something that I’ve been really struggling with. This talk really gave me the ability to believe in myself, believe in my ability to use the knowledge I have received over the years, and from Professor Murphy, and believe in my ability to make a difference in this world. They they’ve taught me that I don’t need to know what I want to do yet, but that I should know that I have the power to do what I want, make a difference, and continue learning,” said Albalak.