Uganda’s orphan army
   A group known as The Lord’s Resistance Army is a rebellious guerrilla group that opposes the military government of Uganda.
   Ugandan troops have failed to defeat the L.R.A. insurgents, who took over a two-year-old rebellion in northern Uganda in 1988. The conflict has displaced more than 2.5 million people, and an estimated 50,000 children have been abducted by the L.R.A.
   Gulu is a government military base for operations against the L.R.A. and out of the estimated 40,000 Ugandan children who commute nightly, 15,000 children seek shelter in Gulu.
   Humanitarian groups said the rate of violent deaths resulting from the conflict in northern Uganda is three times higher than that in Iraq since the 2003 U. S.-led invasion.
   Ten’s of thousands of children flock by foot each night in fear of abduction, sleep in verandas on burlap sacks and bamboo mats in dark cement rooms with standing water, and do homework by candlelight. More than 130 people die per day in northern Uganda due to the level of violence and the condition of the camps.

•Each week, 918 people die in northern Uganda due to violence
• Each day, 58 children under the age of 5 die as a result of violence and preventable diseases.
• One quarter of children in northern Uganda over 10 years old have lost one or both parents.
• 250,000 children in northern Uganda receive no education.
• 50 percent of internally displaced people in northern Uganda are children under 15 years old
• For every one teacher, there are 300 students.
• 737 schools in northern Uganda are non-functioning because of the war.

For more info on the Invisible Children campaign and the Global Night Commute, visit htttp://www.invisiblechildren.com, http://www.myspace.com/invisiblechildren. For Denver’s Global Night Commute site, visit http://www.myspace.com/GNCDenver.