By Julia Matias
Packed with cardboard boxes and sleeping bags, at least nine University students joined more than 67,000 people across the nation in vacating their homes this past weekend. With only a box of saltines and one-and-a-half liters of water for each person, they chose to “Displace” themselves as part of a demonstration to end the war in northern Uganda.
“Displace Me” is an experiential event created by Invisible Children Inc. to imitate the lives of northern Ugandans who are forced out of their homes and into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps as a result of a 21-year war between the rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and the Ugandan government.
After the success of last year’s Global Night Commute, in which people mimicked the life of the children who walk at night to escape the LRA, the Invisible Children decided to put awareness to another aspect of the war’s consequences.
“The phenomenon of displaced camps was not getting attention,” said Bobby Bailey, a California native whose trip to Uganda in 2003 with two other friends became a nationwide social justice experience when they discovered that children were being abducted to become soldiers for the LRA.
Uganda has a death rate three times higher than Darfur, Bailey added. He and his team wanted to “signify the plight of the people” and would help raise awareness through the demonstration, especially in Congress.
Locations in 15 cities, including Los Angeles and Austin, were designated displaced camps. People from the northeast traveled to Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., Saturday afternoon. The displaced individuals, most of them young adults, were asked to wear white shirts with red “X”s to signify the bloodshed of innocent lives. Upon registering, each person gave up their box of saltines and water to be distributed later in the evening. With that, people began building their homes for the night.
“It was so hard to build. We had to figure out how to fit five people in two cardboard boxes,” Nicole Seltzer, a senior history major, said. “We all had to rely on people for help.”
After a few tries, Seltzer’s group finally created what they called a “Hofstra suite,” two doubles and a single. Although their house lasted through the winds and rain, sophomores Carrie Hoffman and Erica Pouliot had a different outcome.
“It was a crazy experience,” Hoffman said. “Our original box collapsed and we built a new one, [but] it didn’t work.” They were both low on blankets and did not sleep very well. However, they realized how lucky they were to have beds every night, she added.
“Even though we were in the cold, it was worth it. You get a small piece on how these people live day by day,” Seltzer said.
When the night hit, Invisible Children gathered the participants together to tape the video they hope to show to Congress as part of their plea for the northern Ugandans. They later watched personal stories of and instructions from Ugandans on an inflatable screen. Despite technical difficulties, the participants shared their stories, wrote letters to their congressmen or called at least five friends to share the cause.
After hours without food, the instructions for dinner finally came. In the IDP camps, women travel two miles by foot for clean water and men farm in the little land they have. Female participants were asked to find the bottles of water, while the male participants collected the crackers. If there was a group made up of only one sex, Bailey encouraged everybody to help each other.
Bridget Matthews, a junior film major who said she did not eat anything prior to being displaced, said that finally eating was only secondary to everything else that day. “You think it [would] be much worse in your head, but it actually is fine.”
The night came to a close, but all were welcome to chat with volunteers or continue sharing stories. Many participants left the mock camps early the next morning to go home, unlike the people in IDP camps. Kimberly Rhyan, the assistant director for student leadership and activities who volunteered for the weekend, said that she realized people “really do need each other.”
Rhyan hopes to engage more University students next year. “I would like to prompt a change within the students so people can look at each other and say, ‘What can we do together,'” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re from here or Uganda. If the [students] came up with that mission that we need each other, then what type of change can Hofstra students really make?”
