KEY NOTE ADDRESS AT UGANDA NORTH AMERICA CONVENTION

A SPEECH PRESENTED BY ALIKER DAVID MARTIN TO THE UGANDA NORTH AMERICA ASSOCIATION CONVENTION
This was a key note address on behalf of Invisible Children
Ministers present, the president of the UNAA and your executives, dignitaries present, representative of the different civil organizations present, families and friends of the pearl of Africa, all protocols observed ladies and gentlemen.
Your presence here tonight aggrandizes the 20th anniversary of the UNAA, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to the honor given to Invisible Children to be represented on this day in our history. I am delighted to be here to share with you the plight of our people in desperate need of not only hands of Grace but Hearts of Grace.
Tonight I share with you the plight of a people noted for its love for knowledge, progress and prosperity, a people noted for its strength and courage, a people known for its belief and honesty, yet brought down to its knees at an hour of change and challenges in decades of hope and fear and in an age of civilization of civilization and ignorance. The greater our knowledge of the catastrophes in northern Uganda increases, the greater our ignorance of the worlds most neglected humanitarians crisis unfolds.
Two decades ago, two dignified ladies initiated the idea of bringing sons and daughters of the pearl of Africa together, Ironically at the same time civil strife was also initiated in Northern Uganda, this has left its people destitute in their homeland, many people lost their loved ones, schools were destroyed, the people lost their livelihood and limbs, many continued to die of curable diseases and hunger, rights were gravely abused, Many lost their identity and dignity, liberty and freedom.
As the guns fall silent, the greatest questions of the day are; how do we bring back the lost glory of the greater north? How do we bring back the lost glory of the pearl of Africa? Who will clean the tears of our people?
As for Invisible Children, we believe ignorance is the daughter of darkness; a ignorant people is a blind instrument of destruction, disease and disunity; poverty and pain; hatred and hypocrisy; sacrifice and suffering. Hence forth we have committed ourselves to eliminate ignorance in northern Uganda.
VCSP
In 2005 Invisible children responded to the plight of children in northern Uganda.Realising that one of the greatest needs in northern Uganda and one of the largest gaps in development comes in the regions access to secondary education, to address this problem we created the visible child scholarship program an initiative that develops the leadership and life skill capacities of promising students. Pioneered by Uganda’s country director Jolly Grace Okot, the program focuses on increased access to post primary education, improved learning environments and mentoring from local leaders. The pilot program was launched in 2005, and we started by sponsoring 100 students. In only 3 years the program has grown immensely and to date we have 690 scholarship students located through out the Gulu ,Amuru and Pader districts.
Once accepted in the program each student is assigned a mentor-an employed community leader whose purpose is to build a personal relationship with the student and provide professional follow up for each child, through this relationships, mentors ensure academic accountability, encourage scholastic success, foster leadership skills and provide parental and career oriented guidance for each student in the program. The mentors receive a variety of trainings such as psychosocial support, child protection and trauma counseling. We currently employ 19 mentors and each works with approximately 30 students having frequent monthly visits to every student’s home and school to ensure the student receives full support needed for their personal and academic success.
Following a successful pilot program in 2007, this year 15th August we launched the post secondary school scholarship with special emphasis on the girl child and we are sponsoring 40 girls an 12 boys to university to make their dreams real.
Games and sport
Debating /Seminars
Acceptance to the program is based on a combination of academic performance and need, with special consideration for children who are total orphans, heads of house holds, formerly abducted returnees, child mothers and those living positively with HIV/AIDS.
S4S
The schools for school program emerged out of our passion and dream to help children in northern Uganda receive quality education. Over the past few years, we have done extensive research in the regions education system and seen the need to encourage academic excellence and leadership not only in students but also on a much larger scale within the schools. Even the children who are able to go to school still face unfair limitations because of the poor conditions of their classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, libraries and sanitary facilities
Invisible Children’s Schools for Schools program links schools worldwide with secondary schools in Northern Uganda, creating a financial partnership that serves to raise standards of education in Gulu and surrounding districts.
During the first year of program implementation, Schools for Schools is linked over 250 international schools with ten selected schools in Northern Uganda. Of these schools, six are in Gulu, three are in Amuru, and one is in Pader; three of these schools have been displaced due to the conflict and are in the process of returning to their original locations. Schools for Schools use a holistic approach to promote development in the schools by focusing on five basic areas of intervention: water and sanitation, books and supplies, teacher incentives, construction of facilities, and technology. The program raises the standards and quality of education in each beneficiary school to a competitive national level by equipping schools with necessary components—infrastructure, resources, technology, training and teachers exchange and by involving all stakeholders in programming and implementation in order to enhance community participation and to create sustainable change.
ECONOMIC PROGRAM
The Invisible Children Economic program promotes economic development in the impoverished IDP camps of northern Uganda and raises money and awareness around the world to fund the Visible Child Scholarship Program.
Beneficiaries from IDP camps are given the opportunity to earn a generous wage by making unique cultural bracelets, and are trained in savings and investment so that they can implement sustainable microeconomic projects in their communities. The bracelets are then exported to the United States and sold together with one of eight short films that educate consumers about the difficulties faced by Northern Uganda’s children. The profits from bracelet sales fund scholarships for VCSP beneficiaries. Alongside other stakeholders, Economic program continues to conduct research in
IDP camps in pursuit of sustainable ways to encourage long-term economic development and meet the needs of displaced persons. Invisible Children is committed to sustaining community IGA projects throughout the return and resettlement process.
Currently we are carrying out pilot programs in two projects Handbag project and cotton project, we hope to make significant progress in improving the poverty levels of the people in northern Uganda.
Comrades, recently the government launched the PRDP (Peace Recovery and Development Plan) setting a framework for recovery and development in northern Uganda.Realising the northern dream requires collective effort from all stake holders. We reiterate the call to all Ugandans in Diaspora to join initiatives that support the recovery in northern Uganda especially those hailing from northern Uganda. As invisible children we cordially welcome your support and cooperation to make the dream of our children real.
The task is enormous but our courage lies in our dreams that one day, the people of northern Uganda will shine again.
We have hope; we have faith that our children will attain quality education that quality education will seize to be a privilege but an inalienable right
We have hope, we have faith that our people will regain their dignity and pride of heritage to promote and protect our customs and beliefs
We have hope, we have faith that our people will relieve themselves from the bondage of mass misery and poverty especially those born in poverty, natured in poverty and destined for poverty
We have hope, we have faith that the death of one innocent child will seize to be statistics but a tragedy and that our children will seize to die of curable diseases.
I f education is the pillar of hope for a bright future in northern Uganda, then that is a cause for which we pledge our souls to spend our careers building other peoples’ careers.
I salute you all