Invisible Children co-founder Bobby Bailey, who left the charity in 2009, has created another project sure to go viral. It's the voiceproject.org where the idea is that you buy a scarf with loving lyrics on it, and the money goes to fund FM radio masts which will broadcast songs sung by women from the Acholi tribe in northern Uganda asking their children to come home.
The project has been backed by the likes of Billy Bragg, Peter Gabriel and Tom Waits. They're encouraging other musicians to cover the Acholi tribe songs as well. Will this clip below reach as many eyeballs as Kony2012 did?
https://player.vimeo.com/video/38709196
We'll see, it does come complete with celebs like Justin Timberlake demonstrating how to wear the scarf.
This video is lovingly dedicated to the memory of "Mama" Elisabeth Vasiloda Ochola who taught us the true meaning of forgiveness. She was and remains the inspiration for The Voice Project.
LRA commanders tell child soldiers and their subordinates that they will be killed by UN Peacekeepers if they try to surrender. Dwog Paco ("Come Home") songs and messages exposing that lie as well as providing safe surrender information to LRA and affected communities broadcast on FM radio are encouraging escapes, defections and surrenders at a rate that could help end Africa's longest running war.
The Amplify Peace initiative is an attempt to amplify and help expand "come home" FM broadcast programing, pioneered and so effectively employed by local stations in Uganda throughout the course of the conflict there. Our goal with this current initiative is to provide more ongoing support for the UN's DDR/RR (Disarmament, Demobilization, Repatriation, Reintegration, and Resettlement) efforts in The Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic in terms of FM radio station construction and operation, and with "come home" and safe surrender broadcast content production recorded locally. The scarves are printed with lyrics from Dwog Paco songs in Luo, the language of the Acholi people, with translation included. Their words, your voice. Amplify Peace.