Bandwagon For A Good Cause

I apologize for my absence; my long one I should say. Things were just getting busy for me for a moment there.

I want to start my comeback with something for a good cause before I divulge into what I am cooking for dinner this evening (grilled pork chops with a lemon-shallot chutney). Recently, as a lot of you have heard by now, the NGO Invisible Children issued a video on YouTube that went viral in just 2 days. It hit 58 million views topping their expectation of just a mere 500,000. That isn't something to contend with in terms of marketing.

I watched the video and I want to start off by saying I have been traveling back and forth from Africa for a couple years now and I have seen a lot of the depressing stories you hear about on the news, in person. It isn't for the faint-hearted let me tell you. While I was in South Africa in 2010, I was in Pretoria meeting with some professionals in my field at Johns Hopkins Health Education satellite office and Invisible Children has done some serious work down there in South Africa. I also attended the 2010 Johannesburg Documentary Film Festival that same year and Invisible Children had submitted work there as well. Mind you, this was back in 2010. Invisible Children has been around for awhile.

Now to my point; recently, Invisible Children has been under fire for a lot of shady money issues. I am here to tell the conspiracy theorists that sustainable NGO's don't just throw ALL of their money that was given to them at once. It is given and used over time. Just like any other company, an NGO needs to make a profit and has an annual budget. People seem to confuse NGO's with charity's. Yes, a lot of money went into the documentary itself but for good reason don't you think? Look at what has happened as a result of it? I want to tell all of my readers (or lack thereof :P) that it is ok to bandwagon a good cause. It is COOL to do what everyone else is doing when it involves helping people and standing up for what is right. Our generation has forgotten what it means to stand for something and to help our world out. We need to change our world for the better so that we can be proud and so our next generation has something to be proud of; you.

So please help my friends out at Invisible Children and spread the word, donate and buy the Action Kit for April 20th when the world will fill the streets and decorate them with Kony 2012 posters and make him the most popular man in the world. Please watch the video below if you haven't. Thanks!

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/