Since the intervention is conducted in Zande, I watch for non-verbal cues from participants as the session progresses, watching reactions, observing interactions. A translator keeps me generally apprised, but I learn the most from watching what goes unsaid.

We have only done two sessions out of the nine so far and yet one of the head teachers came up to me energetically at the end of the second session and explained emphatically that he has already seen a difference in the children since we first showed the first Mobile Cinema film two days ago. I asked him how.

“I see the children who were not abducted playing with the children that were abducted.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised in such a change in a few days.

“Yes,” he said, “I have seen it. I watch and observe. It’s so good.”

Children accepting other children, sparked through encountering story, their own story, and getting to share their thoughts with one another.

This was more than I expected and I thought back to the session that had just ended, as I watched the children and their parents learn relaxation techniques which are self-soothing skills that can help reduce psychological distress.

One little boy next to me had his eyes closed so tightly, carefully listening to Jacqui (DTJ facilitator)’s instructions on how to imagine a “safe place” and create it in your mind. I watched his face, contracted in concentration, imagining his safe place. He was trying so hard to create one, his determination and effort written clearly all over his small and beautifully formed face. And I wanted to cry as I witnessed this child try hard to imagine a safe place in his mind because his own reality is full of so many dangers.

And this is why we are here.

Every child deserves a safe place, not just one they have to imagine.

- Written by Lindsay Branham

Jean-Pierre and Marie, brother and sister who had just escaped from the LRA, came on screen, and we watched as they were welcomed by their family. The mother gently grasping Marie’s hand in tenderness, the father smiling and holding Jean-Pierre to his chest. A young girl next to me let out a sigh as she watched this scene and buried her head in her hands, a memory sparked or yearned for. The collection of children and adults in the room were silent, fixated on the film being projected in their community and in their language. We watched as Jean-Pierre and Marie faced rejection from their peers, and sat in on their inner thoughts as the art of film invited us to. Heads shook in disappointment as the children in the film ridiculed Jean-Pierre and Marie for having been abducted with the LRA, eyes flashed over scenes that they related to, reactions rose and fell as the film continued. The first film ends with Jean-Pierre alone, conflicted over why the other children don’t see him as a child like them. And then the screen went black.

The suspended magic wiped from the room. The group was split in four and each facilitator led them in a vibrant and open discussion following the story of Jean-Pierre and Marie. One community leader said, “This is our story, this is what we face every day.” Another said, “we have to welcome children who come back from the LRA. It isn’t their fault they were abducted.” After the discussion groups one person from each group shared with the larger group the consensus from their group discussions. We even had a child share in front of the elders of the community, who bravely said, “children who come back from the LRA want to be welcomed. Ask us what happened to us in the bush. Talk to us.”

A teacher in the community asked, “we need help when these children return they act different than they did before and we don’t know what to do to help.”

We hope that over the nine sessions we will spend together that comprised the Family-Focused Community-Based Psychosocial Intervention DTJ is doing in collaboration with Queens University, Belfast with 320 children and their parents that they will be equipped better with how to help. We ended the day with playing a game outside that had everyone laughing together – mothers who had lost husbands to the LRA, children who had been abducted, children who had been orphaned, teachers who have lost the resources to teach, community leaders exasperated by the ongoing insecurity, children who perpetuate stigma, children who are the brunt of it. Together, they laughed and had to work together to make the game work, on equal footing. As they ran underneath each other’s arms holding hands, the symbol was striking. This community already showed such strength and thoughtfulness. They did not abdicate responsibility for these children but began listening to each other, listening to the children, expressing how they could be helped.

After a few test screenings in Dungu with our local partner, people responded positively to the films, but I didn’t expect the communities to so thoughtfully analyze the story and the characters, drawing meaning and depth from what they saw, and quickly apply it to their own context and nuanced challenges.

The process of making the films themselves was rich and collaborative – we worked with a local theatre troupe to cast the characters and created the screenplay from interviews with children who had escaped the LRA and after two focus group sessions brainstorming story lines and adapting to the current context. These films are their films and we can’t wait to return to the two communities on Saturday and continue working together to overcome the many affects of violence.

- Written by Lindsay Branham from Dungu, DRC. Photography by Lindsay Branham and Ricky Norris.

Lindsay Branham directs the first auditions for DTJ

Lindsay observes while the actors participate in an acting workshop for mobile cinema.

Jean Pierre the second main character cast as the brother of Marie, and also recently came back from the LRA.

Marie, playing the main girl character, who has recently returned back home from the LRA.

DTJ relies heavily on robust and lightweight equipment filming in Congo amidst harsh conditions and limited access to electricity. Pictured here is a sound recorder and an iPad with the screenplay from which the Congolese actors memorize their lines.

Lindsay Branham stands together with Marie, one of the two main characters.

Ricky Norris films an emotional scene where the brother and sister coming back from the LRA see their parents for the first time.

The woman who plays the mother of Marie and Jean Pierre and must deal with the complexities of her children returning from the LRA.

Lindsay Branham and Paul O

Lindsay uses the donated iPad to show actors in the film the screenplay.

Lindsay Branham at the final mobile cinema scene shoot.

To learn more about DTJ’s mobile cinema program, click here and then share.

Follow @DTJ - on the ground/documenting human rights abuses in Africa. This ones about the LRA:on.dtj.org/LetUsBeFree

— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) March 13, 2012

Rumors spread fast, but no one wanted to risk the potential that it might be true. And so they fled. The history of what the LRA has done in this region has left a formidable trail of terror that people are ready to abandon their homes and run at the mention of their approach. “This is our life,” says Ferdinand, who lives in Dungu centre and fled with his community across the river that night. “We sleep but we don’t, we are always alert, in case the LRA comes,” he said, exhausted after a night in the rain, convinced the LRA was near.

For now, though it was confirmed by OCHA that it was not the LRA, people in Dungu question that conclusion, blaming Congolese politics and ulterior motivations for potentially discounting other potentially actual LRA attacks as mere banditry.

The LRA’s method of serial abduction, murder and looting has rendered the people in Dungu on high alert.

That night as the wind blew and the rain came down, knowing dozens, perhaps hundreds of people were huddled somewhere, too scared to go back home, put this madness in perspective. It is just that.

- Written by Lindsay Branham from Dungu, DRC

Still don't know what happened. People were fleeing with their possessions and saying "LRA" - amidst lightning, rain and fear.

— Lindsay Branham (@lindsaybranham) March 11, 2012

Wild night. Huge thunderstorm and feared LRA attack sent dozens of people fleeing across Dungu bridge. Was caught up in it all.

— Lindsay Branham (@lindsaybranham) March 11, 2012

Was just yelled at by someone on the road in Dungu-"America! What is wrong with you?" good question.

— Lindsay Branham (@lindsaybranham) March 10, 2012

It’s an honor to enter a space and place your hands towards change.

And yet I do not over-inflate the change we can make in a place that has sustained such consistent pain.

This is one small attempt in one small space to increase people’s ability to overcome the many affects of war.

I hope what we build together will become a reprieve that lasts.

- LB

DTJ‘s Lindsay Branham and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Jocelyn Kelly have returned from their research assessment in NE DRC investigating the effects of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on communities in the Haut Uele region of DRC. The LRA continues to wreak havoc on communities in northern DRC, South Sudan and eastern CAR, abducting children for forced conscription, looting communities and killing civilians. Lindsay and Jocelyn investigated the impact these communities feel from the LRA’s presence; the protection mechanisms they have created; the psycho-social situation facing children who have been abducted by the LRA and community capacity to reintegrate the children. A report detailing the findings from the trip will be released in early March. DTJ is thankful for the many people who made this investigation possible, especially those in the communities DTJ visited who so openly and eloquently framed their needs and described the ongoing impact of the LRA.

// Photograph taken by Lindsay Branham in an LRA affected community, NE DRC.

Director of Women in War Program Travels to Dungu to Examine LRA Impact

DTJ has left for NE DRC to begin a preliminary research assessment to understand the psycho-social situation facing former LRA child soldiers and to gather the opinions, thoughts and recommendations from those most affected by LRA violence and be their megaphone. Lindsay Branham, DTJ’s Director of Programs is joined by Jocelyn Kelly, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Director of their Women in War program to carry out the assessment. DTJ is honored to collaborate with such a thoughtful and skilled researcher and is thankful for the generous funding that has made this possible. The research will be used to better advocate for services and funding for this region and to inform DTJ’s upcoming Mobile Cinema Pilot Project to launch in NE DRC this Spring.

// Photograph of a former LRA child soldier from Congo taken in Yambio, South Sudan.

Hey DTJ friends. We know you have already been bombarded with organizations asking for donations and family members asking for presents. We get it, you don’t want to be asked again.

So, instead of asking you to give to DTJ this year (which we still hope you will), we are asking you to watch this film – it’s only about a minute long, and is the reason behind what we do. We just finished it and we are pretty proud of what it says. All of our work to expose injustices children face through original visual journalism rests on the tenant that children, yes, children, matter. This might seem simple but we as a world clearly don’t believe this, otherwise the over 1 billion children living in crisis, wouldn’t be. We give platform to their stories because not only do all children have the right to be heard, but we believe that their stories can shape and change social expectations towards care and protection of children. And we are not stopping until this happens.

So please watch and if you do decide to give to help us reach our $20,000 goal and continue to provide space for the stories of children to be shared with the world and leveraged for impact, we would be thrilled. And if you want to pass this along to 5 or 10 of your friends, we hope you do that too.

Happy Holidays from DTJ.