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Invisible Children Screening Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 19 @ 3:20 in A-302 (or next door)
Come one, come all And shed your ignorance And see what you can do to make a difference To at least one Suffering, Beeping heart Somewhere in the world. 
Thank you.
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| Hey everybody!
In case I haven't said it enough for you, I am Sean Salinger, the founder of EWOC. The mission statement for the Eyes Wide Open Club is as follows:
Through the Eyes Wide Open Club (EWOC), we hope to open the student body's eyes to global developments desperate for attention. We will raise awareness for environmental issues, regional conflicts, and other humanitarian crises that adversely affect beings from around the world. We will campaign against ignorance and shed light on these situations with hopes of changing the world, one set of eyes at a time.
The goal of our club is to raise awareness first, then money. The truth is, much of America's youth is blind to most of the problems of the third world. We know that Africa is a total mess and that AIDS is going crazy, but we don't know any more than that. It is our mission to find out what's happening and then spread the word. People can't care about something, or offer their time, support, and money to a cause if they don't know about it in the first place. This is why we're here.
Here is some general information about the club for you to have down in writing (it looks long, but you gotta read it):
The Board
The board consists of myself (11, esoestaloco@aol.com), Tammy Chow (11, bejuicy03@houston.rr.com), Maggie Hays (11, iluvsf98321@houston.rr.com), Jackie Hartsoe (11, TIMEWARPagain666@aol.com), Scott Schuelke (11, scoostew@hotmail.com), Li Luong (11, secretlyhappy@sbcglobal.net), Jay Rockwell (11, jaymrock@yahoo.com), and Kate Phillips (11, undomiel_evnstar@yahoo.com). We are the original members of EWOC and got it up and running. However, YOU are just as important to this club as we are, and YOU are just as able to lead alongside us.
Feel free to e-mail any of the board members if you have questions, comments, or ideas about EWOC, but try to use this address first (SeeTheUnseen@aol.com). You can also feel free to e-mail Catherine Faig (11, kitkatthekandybar@yahoo.com), our PR gal.
Structure
Here is how our club will work. Since our goal is to raise awareness, we will focus on specific examples of crises, certain countries or regions that need help. However, we can't just send whatever money we raise directly to the place, it has to be through an organization. We will pair each regional crisis with a web site.
The board will split into about 4 groups. Each group will be in charge of raising awareness for a specific crisis. Any money the group raises will be given to the web site we pair with the crisis. Some sites are specific to a certain crisis or country, whereas others are more general. We can't always guarantee that the money will actually be given to your region, but the important part is that people's eyes were opened.
Crises
Here are some examples of why EWOC exists.
Uganda:
For nearly 20 years, a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has engaged in armed conflict with the Ugandan government. Due to decreased support for their movement, they have resorted to kidnapping children to use as soldiers. Those who cross paths with the LRA face torture, mutilation, rape, and murder. Approximately 25,000 children have been abducted. Abductees are brainwashed, desensitized to violence, and trained to kill. 78% of the child soldiers have witnessed a murder, and the majority are forced to kill at some point or another. Most of the children are in between the ages 5 and 12. To avoid capture, these children walk upwards of 5 miles each night to larger cities to sleep. They sleep with thousands of other commuters, crammed into bus parks, verandas, churches, hospitals, and alleys, only occasionally guarded by few government troops. It has been dubbed the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today (with Sudan), largely because of lack of attention. Nobody sees these "invisible children," and we are out to change that.
Sudan:
Between 1983 and 2005, 2.2 million were killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes during a North-South civil war in Sudan. Just as this violence was being resolved, two rebel groups in the western region of Darfur began fighting the government, frustrated by poverty and neglect. Government retaliation came primarily in the form of Janjaweed, a militia recruited from local Arab tribes.
Humanitarian atrocities have been committed by both sides, but most of the blame lies with the Janjaweed forces, which have ravaged the region, leaving in their wake victims of burning, looting, murder, rape, and ethnic cleansing. Throughout more than three years of violence and genocide, 400,000 have died, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Darfur sees more than 100 of its innocent civilians die per day and 5,000 per month, mostly from the famine and disease that have gripped the region. Even the refugees are in a weakened state and are subject to sexual abuse, attacks, malnutrition, and infectious diseases. The humanitarian situation is considered one of the worst in the world, primarily due to ongoing state-sponsored violence, aid obstruction, and global ignorance.
Sri Lanka:
Africa isn't the only place with problems, folks. There is a civil war going on in Sri Lanka between the Tamil rebels, who want to establish a separate homeland for the country's 3 million Tamils, and the Sri Lankan armed forces. This war has prevented aid and supplies being sent to the area, specifically the Jaffna peninsula, which is a refuge to people not only affected by the war, but also by the 2004 tsunami who still have not received aid. Humanitarian workers have no access to affected people in refugee areas where food and supplies are needed. The situation is made even worse by threats against the humanitarian aid organizations.
Chechnya:
Chechnya is a former region of Russia. It recently fought for its independence, but Russia is resisting. It has sent troops into Chechnya, violating many laws, treaties, and human rights. Many are being forced to return to the war-torn region, with scarce food, water, and safety.
Those are just a few examples of what the world has come to. There are crises in Liberia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, and in numerous other places around the world. This is just the beginning of our research. We also encourage YOU to do your own research. Find a crisis in desperate need for attention. Get the story, get the facts, tell us, and tell the world.
Web Sites
Here is a list of web sites through which we might donate money.
World Vision (www.worldvision.com)
World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty.
Doctors Without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org)
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.
Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org)
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.
UNICEF (www.unicef.org)
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.
Youth AIDS (www.youthaids.org)
YouthAIDS is a growing global initiative that generates funding and awareness to help fight the spread of the HIV/AIDS among the world’s youth.
Invisible Children www.invisiblechildren.com
Invisible Children, Inc. is dedicated to providing financial resources to invisible children (in northern Uganda) by documenting their true, untold stories in a creative and relevant way, resulting in positive change. Invisible Children Inc. believes that changing the lives of people in under privileged areas is just as important as changing lives in the western world. The only way change can come in Uganda, and other places in need, is to educate and empower the rest of the world to do something. One of the darkest things about Africa is the rest of the world’s ignorance towards it.
Save Darfur (www.savedarfur.org)
The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of over 100 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations. Our mission is to raise public awareness and to mobilize an effective unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the Darfur region.
Since Invisible Children and Save Darfur pertain directly to Uganda and Sudan, respectively, and since those are THE WORST humanitarian crises in the world today, those are automatically in.
Here's where YOU come in. I need each and every one of you to pick THREE web sites from that list (besides the two automatic ones) and respond with your selections to this e-mail address: SeeTheUnseen@aol.com. So within the next couple of days, take a gander at these fine web sites, explore, and find ones that you believe to the most beneficial over all.
So please respond to this e-mail and VOTE!
Ideas
One thing we need in this club are creative ideas as to how we can spread the word. Activities, fundraisers, event, anything that will get people interested and informed.
For example:
Two Canadians began something called the Gulu Walk (www.guluwalk.com) last year. They are bringing it back this year. It benefits the children of northern Uganda (just like Invisible Children!), and the purpose is to mimic the daily routine of the invisible children. A walk isn't organized for Houston or anywhere near it as of yet, but I'm seeing what we can do to get one started, however big or small it may turn out to be.
Essentially, it's supposed to be a 4-6 mile walk ending in the downtown area of our city. It will be in the afternoon, and there is no overnight experience involved. The problem is, it's on Saturday, October 21. Sound familiar? That's because it's the date of the Homecoming dance. Some people, such as myself, would have no problem skipping the dance or arriving there late, but some might not, and it might hinder our attendance, if we were to get this completely organized. Therefore, it may take place (for us, at least) the next day.
Comments, questions, suggestions? Feel free.
In the near future, we will be having brainstorming sessions. If you have an idea, e-mail me. We can do our best to make anything work.
We will also have numerous viewings of various movies/documentaries that pertain. For example, Invisible Children. In fact! We are having a viewing of Invisible Children very soon, as in next week sometime.
Listen to the announcements and keep your eyes open (ha) for flyers for upcoming EWOC gatherings.
It's so uplifting to see so many people at our school who actually care. That's what the other founders and I set out to find: people who care, people who are creative, people who know that with enough action and enough perseverance, we may actually make a difference.
In each and every one of you, we found what we were looking for.
Remember!
- respond with your VOTES!
- brainstorm!
- listen and watch for announcements!
- bring your friends!
- respond with any questions, comments, ideas, suggestions, etc!
Thank you, one and all
~Sean
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