About 1,100 participate in Global Night Commute
Over 1,100 people — including more than 400 Rice students — participated at Rice in a national, overnight campout to raise awareness of child soldiers in Uganda’s civil war. Intramural Fields 6 and 7 served as the Houston location for the Global Night Commute April 29-30.
Invisible Children, a non-profit group, organized the nationwide demonstration.
Fewer than 500 people had registered online for the Rice campout a few weeks earlier, but the number nearly doubled by the night before the event. Will Rice College junior Achala Talati, who organized the event at Rice with Will Rice senior Preetha Kurian, said she was glad students showed enthusiasm for the campout.
“The Rice campus was so mobilized for this, and it was really exciting because Rice is usually called an apathetic campus,” Talati said.
Participants were given information packets about the war in northern Uganda when they signed in. The packets also contained materials to help participants send letters to President George W. Bush, Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, encouraging the United States to act in Uganda.
Participants at the Houston location wrote about 1,000 letters to the senators and president, Talati said.
Some people also created journal entries of their reactions to the situation in Uganda for a book to be published soon, some bought bracelets made by Ugandan children, and others chose to play frisbee, soccer and other outdoor games throughout the night.
Not all of the people who signed in stayed the whole night outside. Talati said about half of the participants left during the night when temperatures dropped.
“I think people weren’t expecting [the cold],” Talati said. “Maybe between 500 and 600 actually spent the whole night there, but in terms of awareness, just getting around 1,100 people to come out to the field is pretty remarkable. I think Rice can be really proud of that.”
Brown College sophomore Carlos Enriquez said the event’s atmosphere impressed him. “Everyone involved was really committed, and everyone fully supported the cause that it was going towards — I could feel that everyone was really into it,” Enriquez said.
Talati said the local ABC television channel KTRK covered the event on its morning news April 30, and the Houston Chronicle published an editorial about Rice’s involvement in the movement.
Talati said the event cost about $3,000, which was covered by donations from Rice Program Council, Rice Student Volunteer Program, Community Involvement Center, Rice Amnesty International, Salseros, Wiess College and Wiess Resident Associate Bill Wilson.
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