By Lauren Langdon

Rarely are there human rights movements that everyone can take part in. In most circumstances, the only way to make a difference is to travel to another country or donate substantial amounts of money.

Kony 2012, however, is an exception. This recently-popular campaign is Invisible Children Organization’s crusade to bring justice to warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Republican Army (LRA). The LRA is a rebel group in power in central Africa who has abducted more than 25,000 children since 1986 according to Children of Uganda.

While some people criticize this campaign for a number of reasons, I believe that this organization is still making a difference in today’s world. Without Invisible Children many people would have never heard of Joseph Kony, the LRA or these children’s plight.

Most people had never heard of Kony until the Invisible Children Organization posted a thirty minute video that boosted 50 million views within a week on YouTube. The video showed emancipated and hurt children, one boy cried as he remembered watching his brother’s murder. Another image demonstrated the massive amount of children affected by Kony.

While this campaign resulted in huge popularity, it was also accompanied by criticism.

The criticism ranges from conspiracy theories that Kony has been dead for over five years to attacks on Invisible Children’s finances. I think our generation is too skeptical. We are quick to jump onto the bandwagon and even quicker to jump off and attack. We do not stop and search for the answers before we start to judge.

Instead of focusing on these things, people should remember the real reason this video was created: to stop an undeniably evil man. We can’t all travel to Africa and help people there directly, but we can do things here. Here are things that you can do right now:

• Remind people of Kony on social media sites
• Take part in the “Covering the Night” movement by putting up posters of Kony on April 20
• Give money to stop Kony. Invisible Children focuses more on awareness of Kony, but if you want to give money directly Compassion International and Samaritan’s Purse are making a difference in Uganda and surrounding areas.

Social media can make a difference. As the YouTube video stated, to find Kony we need to keep the US advisers in Africa. If we do not care about the LRA then they will be removed and Kony is less likely to be stopped.

Stop criticizing and help the children.