Class sacrifices graduation trip to aid Uganda's 'invisible children'

Published: 2006-06-27

TACOMA, Wash. (CNS) -- Visitation School's eighth-grade graduation trip to Victoria would have been a blast for the 13-member class. Whale watching, shopping and visits to the House of Wax, the Imax Theater and the provincial museum were among the activities scheduled for the three-day stay in British Columbia's picturesque capital. But a visit to the school in May by a group of students from Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma changed all that. The group was spreading the word about the tragic situation in Uganda, a nation plagued by civil war where young children are being abducted from their homes at night and forced to fight in the rebel army. Thousands of Ugandan children, known as "night commuters," attempt to escape such a fate by traveling into town each night to sleep in bus stations and other public places, according to Invisible Children Inc., a nonprofit group based in El Cajon, Calif. The students decided to sacrifice their trip and instead donate $3,193.47 to help Invisible Children Inc. provide medicine, food, blankets and other aid to the children.

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