KONY 2012?

i feel this immense sense of confusion and joy, hope and fear. first of all, i'm not sure how people have not heard of "invisible children" before. maybe that is me just being ignorant, but i guess i was under the impression that it was a known cause. regardless, it is getting people talking and hopefully learning. but although i can't say who you should and shouldn't fund, i think matters like this deserve a bit of research.

what the rebel leaders in Uganda have been doing to these children for decades is DISGUSTING and DISTURBING. but what i think invisible children doesn't tell us is that this is not an isolated issue. this happens everywhere around the world, but in africa known child soldiers are found in: sudan, yemen, guinea, sierra leone, liberia, cote d'ivoire, chad, republic of congo, democratic republic of congo, burundi, rwanda, central african republic, somalia & angola. uganda, i will say, probably has one of the worst cases, but so do places like sierra leone and the DRC. i guess my point here is that so much is going on, and that these problems did not just come out of the blue. they are fed from years of colonization, corrupt governments, marginalization and poverty. there are other structural issues to look into and i'm urging all of you interested in "invisible children" to do that. it's impossible for you to research every country, but look into one and try and learn all that you can. you'll be amazed. this is not just a problem for the children.

here's a good organization with a lot of good background information for those that are interested: http://www.child-soldiers.org/home

CSW Reception 2012

last week i had the privilege of taking photos at the UN Commission on the Status of Women Reception at the Turkish Center. after months and months of planning, the event was a huge success! the CSW is a 2 week long forum where women from all over the world come to meetings and events, discuss important issues and network and learn from one another. this year's theme was "rural women," so it was amazing to see midtown east flooded with beautiful clothing and different faces. here's a sneak peak at some of the photos from the event: