Bobby, Jason and Laren were college students from Southern California when they learned about atrocities against children in Africa. The three friends left the comforts of home and traveled halfway across the world to do some soul searching. During a trip to Uganda, they came face-to-face with the nightwalkers.
There they met Jacob and Thomas, brothers who had recently escaped from the LRA. The young boys were being hunted by their captors and were forced to hide in a small room during the day. At night, they slept next to hundreds of other nightwalkers in a bus park.
Jacob and Thomas didn't escape soon enough to save their other brother, whom Jacob says was murdered by the rebel army. When discussing their dead brother, Jacob's tears begin to fall. He tells Bobby, Jason and Laren that he'd rather die than live in these conditions.
While in Uganda, the three college students encountered thousands of children living like Jacob and Thomas. In one hospital, they saw 1,000 sleeping children crammed into two small rooms.
"Coming from a culture where the youth are exceptionally valued, we never realized so many children could go unseen...that so many beautiful faces could be invisible," Jason says.
Published 04/26/2006
