SVU’s actors powerfully portrayed the devastating effects of the LRA on individuals. The episode detailed the plight of a Ugandan girl who had been a sex slave for an LRA commander in northern Uganda and a young Ugandan man reeling from the memories of the horrors he had committed as a child soldier.
If you were compelled to action by what you saw, visit Enough’s special page on the LRA to learn more about how you can get involved to urge our leaders to take action to stop the LRA from committing further atrocities in central Africa.
As SVU actress Mariska Hargitay and John Prendergast recently wrote on Huffington Post, the story of the LRA’s reign of terror in central Africa is horrible, but the situation is not hopeless, and a solution is possible. Hargitay and Prendgergast asked this question:
Can a TV show raise awareness, educate millions of Americans, and inspire them to demand government action that will bring an end to the scourge of child soldiers and sex slaves half a world away?
Here at Enough, we hope and we think that the answer is yes. If you have five minutes, call or write to your senators and representatives and to President Obama right now to urge him to make the LRA crisis a priority. As a start, ask the president to name a Special Envoy for Central Africa to deal with the LRA and with the ongoing war in the Congo.
If you missed last week’s episode, here’s the two-minute recap: