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0 viewsIn 2003, three young and energetic former school friends who “hadn’t seen a lot of the world” set off for Sudan with a second hand camera bought on eBay and a vague idea of making a movie about the on-going civil war in the country.
Initially, this slightly naïve project looked doomed to fail. The young Americans found no fighting and their amateur video footage only showcased their boredom and a few scenes from the aftermath of digesting unfamiliar food. Fairly standard gap year stuff, which for the purposes of this article, may be exactly the point: these old friends were just normal middle class kids looking to ‘do something’ without really knowing how.
Then, whilst passing through northern Uganda, everything changed. After the truck they were travelling in was shot at, they were forced to stay overnight in the town of Gulu. Here, Jason Russel, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole witnessed the hundreds, if not thousands, of children pouring into the town under the cover of darkness to avoid being abducted from their homes by roaming rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Led by the now infamous Joseph Kony, the LRA had been involved in a horrific 25 year war in Northern Uganda that has since spilled over into Sudan, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA is known to force young boys and girls to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves.
Three ‘normal’ Americans had stumbled on an extraordinary cause in the making. The NGO, Invisible Children was subsequently set up in 2004-5 with a view to building schools for the children of northern Uganda and rehabilitating those affected by the LRA and returning them home.
Invisible Children’s first video, ‘Invisible Children: Rough Cut’ was, as the title implies, raw and unpolished and made on a meagre budget. But from the very outset Russell and co were well aware of the power of the youth and social media platforms to gain support for their cause. By 2005 they had pulled another friend, Ben Keesey, on board as financial director, who was armed with a $70,000 loan from his parents. They otherwise relied heavily on volunteers, known as “roadies”, to travel to colleges and schools all over the US with film equipment and projectors to screen the movie and encourage young people to raise and donate money towards their cause. One school in Southern California single-handedly raised $42,000 in 2007. By this stage Invisible Children already had well over 2 million ‘likes’ on their facebook page.
Thanks in large part to their savvy exploitation of social media and fundraising efforts, Invisible Children finally gained worldwide fame as a result of one of their most recent online videos, Kony 2012, which was viewed over 85 million times and translated into 80 different languages in the first six days after it was released. Numerous stars such as Rihanna and George Clooney were soon promoting Invisible Children and professing the need to bring Kony to justice on social media platforms, including Twitter.
Much of the strength of the video’s message and the subsequent attention it has garnered has been accredited to its slick, Hollywoodesque editing, narrative style and soundtrack and, thus, largely to the film background of its co-founder and creative director, Jason Russell. (See videos at end article)
Kony 2012 was Invisible Children’s twelfth film and they had finally achieved the perfect balance between campaign, documentary and MTV-style footage. On top of this, the group’s tireless endeavours to gain support had, by now, seen them organising a crowd of hundreds to camp outside Oprah Winfrey’s studio until they were invited onto her show!
Invisible Children’s more recent campaigns have focused primarily on Kony himself (who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity), and have looked to encourage not only increased awareness of Kony’s atrocities but also on-the-ground military action with a view to seeing him arrested or killed, and, as a result, an end to the war. These campaigns have proven so powerful in fact, that even before Kony 2012 they helped urge President Barack Obama to send 100 special operations troops to Uganda in October 2011 to assist local military in finding Kony.
Since the release of Kony 2012 the AU has also committed more troops to the cause, although insiders deny that this is a direct result of the work of Invisible Children. Whatever the truth may be, it is certainly hard to entirely dismiss its determination and its influence.
Furthermore, in May this year, one of Kony’s top generals, Caesar Achellam, also wanted by the ICC, was captured by Ugandan forces. Surely it cannot be pure coincidence that the most high profile LRA member to be arrested for some years was apprehended so soon after the furore of Kony 2012.
What is telling about Invisible Children’s approach is that instead of the traditional methods of looking for funding and one-off payments from large companies, local government bodies or high-net-worth individuals, they have achieved their substantial support and results generally through crowd-funding and relying on small donations from individuals. On their site (www.invisiblechildren.com), they state that money raised for their cause is the result of more than 8 million different donors. On Oprah’s show, for example, they appealed to everyone watching to raise just $25 for the cause. In this respect, Kony 2012 and the commotion around it was very much the result of a worldwide team effort.
So what does all this mean for South African NGOs?
Though there (thankfully) isn’t any pressing need for military intervention in a South African context, local NGOs could do well to follow Invisible Children’s example. According to an article by Virashni Pillay in the Mail and Guardian, many South Africans currently suffer from a sense of “charity fatigue” that could well be addressed at least partly through the use of provocative and innovative new visual methods like those used by Invisible Children, even in the “rough” earlier videos.
Furthermore, the Mail and Guardian article goes on to say that South African NGOs are not really specialised for social media platforms in the way that Invisible Children is. As a result of its specialization, an interesting trend emerges from Invisible Children’s viewing statistics for its videos: its main audiences are teenagers, between the ages of 13 or 17, or young adults, from 17 to 24.
Though these age demographics define those who generally spend a lot of time on social media platforms, the implication is that these young viewers extend this information exchange to their parents or grandparents and encourage them to act. Several members of US congress that support Invisible Children have said that they first heard about the cause from their children. In addition, these youngsters are not discounted from donating to a cause directly, because small sums like $25 or less are still affordable.
Invisible Children’s success is an inspiring precedent for South African NGOs and should encourage them to further engage with social media platforms as a means by which to extend their demographic reach in a country where close to 50% of the population are under 25 and where so many NGOs focus their attention on issues related to children and young people (AIDS orphans, education etc).
The power of mobile phones, especially those with internet technology, to connect South Africa’s young people across class, and racial and geographical divides has already been made clear. NGOs can turn this connection and the ever-increasing access to social media into a powerful collective force. By targeting young people, South African NGOs can prompt them to be a more responsible and aware part of the citizenry and give them a means by which to encourage, facilitate and be part of positive change, whether directly or indirectly. In doing so, they can help challenge the often dominant narrative of South Africa’s youth as a “ticking time bomb” or the “lost generation” as well as gain wider and more fervent and energetic support for their own causes.
In general, Invisible Children has revealed a revolutionary new way for NGOs all over the world to promote and market themselves more widely, effectively and persuasively, even if starting out without considerable funding, resources or experience. After all, it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners, TV 15 years to reach the same number of viewers. Invisible Children trumped that in a few days.
Over the coming weeks, Supernews will be looking to showcase more examples that have been quick on the uptake. If your organisation would like to apply similarly innovative concepts and campaigns to a more local context, Supernews can make it happen. Please contact supernews directly on: newsvertise@supernews.co.za
Invisible Children Trailor:
Kony 2012
Call to Action appeal outside Oprah’s Harpo Studio