Focus Magazine

THE GLUE NETWORK AND TOMS SHOES GIVE LOVE BACK***FASHIONING HOPE

A story of child soldiers forced into war and the Protest to stop it

THE FREEDOM PROJECT

3.95US Issue 3 vol. 2

get envolved. www.thegluenetwork.com

Table of Content pg 4 Give Love Back

pg 5 The Freedom Project pg 6 Displace Me

pg 10 Fashioning HOPE

According to an optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child it has been forbidden to use children as soldiers.

There are still 250,000 children used adult wars.

pg. 3

give love back What does it mean to Give Love Back? This question was asked throughout the ASR Tradeshow as a part of the Give Love Back Campaign.

Give Love Back was a collaboration of like-minded brands and artists who share a commitment to use their time, talent, and treasure to make the world a better place. This initiative was inspired by The Glue Network, Jedidiah Clothing, eVocal and Toms Shoes.

Over the 3 day convention attendees would slip into a pair of Toms Shoes, step into their favorite color of paint and encouraged to create colorful footprints across 4’ X 8’ panels of wood. These floor panels were eventually hung on the wall to dry and used as backdrops for artists to paint over. Kelli Murray, Ekundayo, Steve Caballero, Chris Markovich, and Austin Blassingame were among the 12 artists who painted throughout the show.

pg. 4

The eVocal crew set the tone for the entire event with their introspective MC’s and imaginitve carpentry that created the perfect backdrop to house the give love back campaign.

Jedidiah hosted a fashion show as a part of the threeday festivities. Models were dressed in pieces from Jedidiah’s fall 08 and spring 09 lines

and Toms shoes. The event’s purpose was to showcase how fashion and art can be incorporated into a business model that gives back. Through Jedidiah’s Hope Collection, and 1 percent for humanity campaign we have raised over $197,000.00forourhumanitarian partners. Likewise, Toms shoes has donated over 60,000 pairs of shoes to children in need in there 1 for 1 campaign.

“there are around 200,000 human slaves in America right now.”

The Freedom Project Over $10,000 was raised during The Freedom Project event, presented by thegluenetwork.com and Fuel TV, to help educate people about illegal human trafficking and how to stop it. The Freedom Project was a benefit which supported the International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, and slavery.

Over 700 people attended the benefit on Saturday, April 28, 2007 at 7pm. Hosted by the prestigious Hotel Ménage in Orange County, guests enjoyed: live music by Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman, Speech from the hip-hop group Arrested Development, hiphop musician Braille and DJs

Trent Dean and Linney; a live mural painting; a silent art auction featuring pieces from 50 different artists; guest speakers Sharon Cohn from IJM, anti-slavery activist Aaron Cohen and David Batstone from the Not For Sale Campaign; live filming of Fuel TV’s The Daily Habit; live screen-printing and clothing art from brands such as Harvey’s, Lewsader and Kites, and Tom’s Shoes; and text messages shown live on-screen by Mobile Cause.

The live 8’ x 24’ mural painting illustrated the message of Freedom to support the fight against slavery. Once sold, the mural’s proceeds will benefit IJM and other related non-profit organizations.

Curated by Jeremy Cove with

Munson Industries, the artists included: Chase, Derek Albeck, Devon Icoondio Duvea Reid or Ekundayo, Johnny Rodriguez, Jophen Stien, Joshua Clay, Kelli Murray, Marco Zamora, Ralph Silerio and Tomii Lim. Multiple non-profit organizations were present at the event to educate guests about human trafficking and help inspire them to make a difference. The organizations included: International Justice Mission (IJM), Not for Sale Campaign, Polaris Project, Indian Princess Project, Rescue and Restore Unity Coalition, Bilateral Safety Corridor (BSCC), Cargo: Innocence Lost, and NightLight Bangkok.

pg. 5

A

child goes missing,

abducted, in the United States. The police are notified and they issue what in America is referred to as an Amber Alert.

Radio stations begin broadcasting descriptions, while TV stations flash pictures of both the abductor and abducted across the screen. Billboards along major roads flash pertinent information regarding the abduction. The police move out in force with helicopters and planes and the Army National Guard may even be engaged. Everything is put into operation to bring a child home to its family.

At the same time, they go after the abductor to put him behind bars, so she or he cannot harm another child. This is customary. pg. 6

Meanwhile In another part of the world, in the northern districts of Uganda, 30,000 children have been abducted in the past 20 some years.

Most every family in the Acholi and now Langi area has been affected. Many families have lost a child through abduction, or their village was attacked and destroyed, families burned out and/or killed, and harvests destroyed by an army of abducted children known as The Lord’s Resistance Army. The countryside is virtually empty and people have moved into safe villages that are supposed to be protected by the government, but that has often been in words but not in deed. At night the children of the north flee into towns to sleep, fearing that they might be abducted.They find safety in

numbers in towns such as Gulu where even the local bishops and ministers have joined them as they seek safety from the Lord’s Resistance Army.

This Lord’s Resistance Army is led by Joseph Kony, a former altar boy, self-styled mystic, demonically inspired medium, ruthless leader, and merciless person who has brought Northern Uganda to a virtual standstill.

People are frozen in fear, commerce has become non-existent, fields go fallow, villages have been decimated, and children have grown up without a future or hope.

Joseph Kony comes from the Acholi area of Uganda. His niece is Alice Lakwena, who led

thousands of disaffected Acholi soldiers into battle against President Museveni, who had defeated their army.

Soldiers were led to believe by Alice Lakwena that holy oil would keep bullets away, songs would slay their enemy, sticks would become swords, and rocks would turn into grenades and mortars.

Alice Lakwena—her last name means messenger— was certainly a warrior priestess. Joseph Kony took upon himself her mantle of leadership, but the two were miles apart in their ways.

life itself. Boys and girls are turned into ruthless killers who no longer feel, but are numbed within, and their souls have become seared by the atrocities they have seen and in which they have forced to participate.

Children 10 years old are taught to kill, often beginning with their own families. Others are

ment represents a loving God, Christianity or Islam, but all know it is about demonic control of children, boys and girls, young men and women, doing the bidding of a crazy man.

Many of the leaders in his army were abducted 10 or 12 years ago, but have known nothing else but death and destruction.

killed and a child is let to live and then the child is commanded to kill in order to stay alive.

If children do escape, they will War in itself is bad, never be the but this conflict has same again.

been going on for 18 years with no resolve in sight. This war is hellish in that the Joseph Kony’s army recruits its soldiers from the villages and schools of northern Uganda through abductions. Thousands of children have been robbed of childhood and, in many cases, of

Joseph Kony claims to want to make Uganda into a state based on the Ten Commandments, but he has broken each one of them.

Today no one thinks Kony’s movepg. 7

I nv i s i b l e C h i l d r e n,, a non-profit group, has been working on tons of projects, trying to get the government to realize the seriousness of the Uganda situation, and to help. Last year, they hosted Global Commute Night, where over 80,000 people came out and slept on the streets for peace. Two months later, peace talks came. It was then they realized, that the people did affect the government’s decisions.

In come Displace Me.

Displace Me was created to be an experiential event. With 15 locations across the United States, participants had to travel long distances to reach their “camps.” The travel aspect was reflective of the displaced individuals in northern Uganda who pg. 8

were g i v e n 48 hours to leave their homes and relocate to displaced camps throughout the region. Once Displace Me participants arrived at their camps, they built “huts” out of cardboard boxes. Throughout the remainder of the night, participants were rationed food and water and heard, via video, personal testimonies from those living in the IDP camps in the North.

Other aspects of the event included a speech at every city from an individual personally connected with the conflict.

Speakers included the Gulu District Chairman Norbert

Mao, Invisible C hi l d r e n’s Ugandan Country Director Jolly Okot, and the Senior Adviser to the International Crisis Group John Prendergast, among a few. First Lady Laura Bush also directly addressed the Displace Me participants via a prerecorded s p e e c h shown on video.

Participants ended the night writing letters to their government leaders and the President of Uganda,

demanding the never-again. After 21 years of war 1.5 million forced into camps are dying by the thousands.

We w i l l no t c l o s e o ur eye s to t h e emergency in Northern Uganda.

This isn’t about guilt, it’s about faces with names. The 50 American states are united in 15 cities. We are displaced because they are displaced. The time has come for peace. Apathy has now become activism. We go without food and we go without water for all of the invisible children who go without. We calling friends and family who weren’t aware of the conflict, as well as holding 21 minutes of silence for the 21 years of war.During the night participants also helpe d f ilm a video that was to be shown to member s of the U.S. Senate. Participants in each city held up giant banners with their city’s name and one to two phrases from the following statement...

“We are a movement of everyday h e ro e s . We a re t h e n e ve r- b e fo re

forego our comforts, and we forego our beds for equality freedom and justice for all. We stand on our forefathers’ shoulders to declare that all men are created equal. We ask: Peace in Northern Uganda protection of its citizens and a plan to bring them home

...Every war has an end.”

fashioning hope “Fa s h i on i n g Hope� is a mash up of brands and artists working together to make a difference in the world!

Special thanks to: Flexfit, Jedidiah, ASR, and Montana Cans

pg. 10

On January 22-24, 2009 Glue Network teame d up with Flexfit and Jedidiah to create a Live Art Installation at ASR Trade Expo (Action Sports Retailers). The effort helped to raise money and awareness for: Gabriel

House, Street Angels, and Invisible Children.

Austin Blasingame, Kelli Murray, Johnny (KMNDZ) Rodriguez, and Ekundayo

teamed togherther on three separate 6’ X 8’ walls to create a beautiful expression of HOPE! Katherine Brannock painted live on Flexfit hats and gained the fascination of just about every single person that passed by the installation. Two of the three murals that were painted live at ASR went on silent auction. The starting bid on each 6’ X 8’ mural was $1000. Bidding ended on March 1, 2009.

For each day of ASR, Glue sold raffle tickets to tradeshow attendees.

The winner got to choose which of the three murals they wanted to take home. Congratulations to raffle winner Whitney Pratt! Whitney selected the mural that was painted by artists, Ekundayo and Austin Blasingame.