By Erin Michel
Reporter
If a child goes missing in the United States police are notified and everything is done to bring the child home to their family. They go after the abductor to put him behind bars, so they cannot harm any other child. In Uganda nothing is done for the child to be found, just the sound of silence while another school, town, and house has been swept by Joseph Kony’s child army, known as The Rebels, in Northern Uganda. Though, heartbreaking, it is too late for the U.S. to change the damages of the lost childhoods.
The things that are happening in Uganda are terrible; families are killed, children are getting abused, walking for miles, and the biggest one of all is their childhood being stolen from them forever. No child should have to go through those types of things.
The issue should have been focused on much earlier. Now over 30,000 children have gone missing in Uganda in the last 20 some years that Kony and the LRA been abducting children for his army. Ugandans believe that it’s a little too late for the United States help; and I do agree. This was important to them about 10 years ago, but by now it’s just something normal for them. We could help by sending army forces to train the Uganda’s army to catch Kony, but I believe that this will turn out to start a war with the rebels, because Kony will want to keep his power and army.
These may not affect us physically or nationally, but this is very heartbreaking to know that things like this are happening around the world and it’s normal for them to have those things going on. No matter what color, religion, or gender you are; it should never be okay to let these types of people abuse and abduct children. However, we neglected to care until now and now we can’t do anything about it. If something likes would happen in our country the abductor will be found in 24 hours or less, but 20 years and 30,000 children long gone in Uganda is a way to late for us to help and rebuild Uganda’s family’s and childhoods that have been taken away. The best thing we could do would be to focus on the rebuilding of Uganda and our own issues going on in the United States.