Students Sleep Outside to Protest Child Abduction

photo | Lauren Melcher

A friend and I made our way to St. Paul to check out what the Invisible Children: The Rescue event was really about.

By the time we got there all the participants had made the mile and a half trek from Rice Park to the capitol building. Lindsay Luczkowiak and Erica Schwartz, the local coordinators of the event, later explained that participants made the walk in groups of 20-30 people, and holding twine to keep them chained together. This reflected the way the child soldiers have to walk to any destination. Campsites of blankets, sleeping bags, and coolers were scattered across the front lawn of the building, and everyone was getting ready for the night ahead, since they would be camping there overnight. The seriousness of the event and the threat of a cold, rainy night approaching didn’t stop people from having fun: playing Frisbee, unwrapping new decks of cards, charades. There was even a group of people doing handstands and back flips. The mood was light and positive and everyone looked like they were happy to be there.


photo | Lauren Melcher

At about 6:30 PM, the event’s local coordinators spoke from the steps leading to the capitol building. Brandon Palma and Tessa Deleo rallied the crowd by telling everyone that they were participating in an event that was taking place in 100 cities in ten different countries around the world. They explained the history of children abducted by Joseph Kony in Africa. Brandon also explained that colored flags would be raised throughout the evening to indicate certain successes.

Sailors Bring Medical Care to Honduran Villages

Cross-post from United States Southern Command

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ron Kuzlik
Beyond the Horizon Public Affairs


Optometrist Cmdr. Louis Perez uses a retinascope and lens rack to check 9-year-old Sergio Colocho´s eyes in Capiro. (Photo courtesy of Ron Kuzlik)

SOTO CANO AIR BASE, Honduras– US Navy personnel from Operational Health Support Unit (OHSU) Dallas, Texas, completed two days of medical services to over 700 villagers in Agua Salada, Honduras, as part of their commitment to Beyond the Horizon 2009 – Honduras.


Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Michael Behrendt of Corpus Christi, Tex., explains the different uses and proper dosages of certain pharmaceutical prescriptions to villagers of Aguacatal. (Photo courtesy of Ron Kuzlik)

From March 25 to April 4, the Navy team of 32 Reserve component doctors, nurses, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists and hospital corpsmen provided general medical care and diagnosis, dental check-ups and extractions, eye exams, prescription services and preventative care lessons to six different villages in rural Honduras.

Building a Future

Esther lives in Gita, Uganda, where soon she will go to school for free. Her mother, Hariyet, is helping to clear land and dig foundations for Esther’s new school. Hariyet, who only went to school through 4th grade, wants better for her six children. This fall, Esther along with her siblings, will begin classes at Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to one-sixth of the world’s children, but they make up half of the world’s uneducated children, in large part because of the lack of available educational facilities. Building Tomorrow works to reduce this disparity by connecting college students in the US with educational needs in Uganda.

George Srour was an undergraduate when he interned with the United Nations. Through the internship, he became aware of the vital need for educating the millions of children under age 15 in Uganda who make up half the country’s population. Returning to his campus, College of William & Mary, he organized a fundraiser which raised $45,000 to build a school in Kampala, Uganda. He went on to found Building Tomorrow to continue this project.

Inaction is a Choice

“I rather immediately fell in love with the piece,” said director Warren Bowles. “Because I went through the experience of totally ignoring the issues in Rwanda. Not totally ignoring, you have some concept of what’s going on, but no real concept. And to see a piece that deals with the issues of what went on without being in any way voyeuristic about the scope of the genocide or wallowing in the genocide itself, is something that I found very fascinating.”

‘I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady From Rwanda,’ now playing at the Park Square Theater, takes a penetrating look into a survivor’s guilt and how one women looks to resolve her feelings through the act of writing.



“We really try to get in touch with the events of the genocide and the overall scope of the genocide. And now we’re trying to figure out how we speak to one individual’s part in it. And by part in it, I mean both as the victim, which Juliet is, but also as the disinterested third party, which is what most of us were,” said Bowles. “Our ignoring the issues was not a lack of action: it was kind of a choice. You could say it was lead by our government, and Clinton, and Madeleine Albright. It’s always easy to find an excuse but still—we needed to do something. We needed to pay attention.

“I would hope that it [the play] would pique an interest not only in the situation in Rwanda but the whole idea of being able to have an effect on the world. Being aware changes that world because your awareness changes you and your actions. It’s the butterfly wings kind of thing. … I think what it will do is let the audience see that there are individuals that went through this and not only that, the effects of this horrific genocide in 1994 are not over yet and won’t be for a long time.”

The Park Square Theatre is generously offering $10 off the ticket price to “friends of NEED magazine.”
To get the discount, use the NEED code “document” when ordering.
The play runs April 24 – May 17, 2009.

Park Square Theatre: www.parksquaretheatre.org; phone 651.291.7005

New NEED Digital Editions

Thank you for your feedback on our digital version of Issue 1. Issues 2 - 4 are now available.

Why are we creating digital editions of back issues?

1. To share the amazing past stories of hope and change with others
2. To quickly reach global and tech savy readers
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Enjoy the digital editions and share them with others!

ISSUE 1 | ISSUE 2 | ISSUE 3 | ISSUE 4

Yarn and a Hook: Crocheting for Community

Krochet Kids International (KK) is proof that you do not need to be a surgeon or a millionaire to help those in need. Co-founder Kohl Crecelius reminded me that helping out is about realizing what skills you already have and using them to make change. For Crecelius, Travis Hartanov and Stewart Ramsey, this skill happened to be crocheting.

After learning how to crochet from an older brother, Crecelius, Hartanov and Ramsey started a small crocheting business in high school. “We’re all from the Northwest, all skiers and snowboarders, so we appreciate a good beanie. … We were on this little regimen where we were crocheting beanies everyday of the week and taking orders from people,” says Crecelius. Soon the three of them were dubbed the “crochet kids.”

During their first years of college the three friends traveled for different volunteer opportunities. Crecelius spent a summer in the Dominican Republic, and Hartanov and Ramsey went to Bali to volunteer in orphanages. Crecelius says, “We all came back from those experiences and, separately from each other, had a desire to help.”The crochet kids thought over the next year about what they could do to help. “We came back to this skill that we had that was crocheting. As silly as it was, it just takes yarn and a hook and you can create awesome things. … We were like, ‘Okay, crocheting is something we know how to do and can sell here. … We’re going to teach people to crochet,’” explains Crecelius.

Homeless in Argentina

This post was submitted by photographer Toby Binder


Roque lives with his family under a bridge in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. They have been homeless for five years now.




Habitat for Humanity Argentina. Volunteers work with local leaders and families to build homes for people in need of housing.