After painting an Ugandan child’s face on a canvas in bright colors, Lydia Kim attempted to destroy the cloth with razor blade scratches and sandpaper to better represent the suppression of the child’s dreams.

But to her surprise, Kim, a second-year English student, said the distressed painting became more beautiful. To her it became a better symbol of the potential that still exists for children enduring the violence imposed on them from a militia group in Uganda.

“They’ve been trampled and beaten down, but I believe that they can overcome the horrors they’ve been through,” Kim said.

Kim’s painting, “(Not so) Broken Promises,” is one of the works at an art show called “Breaking the Silence” put on by UCLA’s chapter of Invisible Children, a national group which aims to stop child abduction in Uganda.

For the past 21 years, a militia group in Uganda has imposed its military violence on more than 100,000 children, some as young as 5 years old, and have trained these children to become soldiers, according to the United Nations.

The art show, which is on display in Kerckhoff Hall Art Gallery through Friday, is the first of several events aimed at informing students of the situation in Uganda and raising money for the cause.

The artworks’ auction money will go toward the national Invisible Children headquarters to help fund refugee and education programs for children in Uganda, said Jenny Hofmeister, assistant director of Invisible Children.

Funds will also be used to create an American opposition that will put pressure on Ugandan politicians to put an immediate stop to child abductions, Hofmeister said.

By connecting the humanitarian community with the art community, Invisible Children student officers said they hope to inspire students from all over campus to become part of their effort.

“The whole movement is unique because it started with a documentary made by film majors who urged students to (use) their talents – whatever they are – to fight this,” said Anthony Halim, co-director of the Invisible Children group at UCLA.

The documentary “Invisible Children,” from which the initiative gets its name, attracted the attention and spurred the involvement of many students last year through several on-campus screenings.

The film, which was first released in 2003, documented the journeys of several children who walk many miles everyday and sleep in a different locations every night to escape abduction from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel militia group.

According to the Invisible Children Web site, many children who are caught are trained to be soldiers and charged with the mission of killing other children.

Because the problem has gone unnoticed and unrecorded for decades, the filmmakers have given the victims the name “invisible children.”

Other programs the organization has held include the Global Night Commute earlier this year, which mimicked the daily walk the Ugandan children make. Students marched five miles back and forth from UCLA to the Santa Monica City Council building.

In the case of the art show, artists and musicians who performed at the show’s opening Tuesday night used their creative talents to reach people about the situation abroad and to raise money for the cause, said Halim.

The show also includes montages of photos and stories of Ugandan children who have been soldiers or sex slaves.

Halim said that connecting individual faces to the problem creates a huge emotional impact.

Among the stories included is that of a young boy refugee named Ofonyo Innocent who hopes to one day be president of a reformed and just Uganda.

Another is of Grace Innocent, who was made a sex slave at the age of 10 and gave birth to the product of her rape before becoming a teenager. Unlike male soldiers who can come back to their villages and try to rebuild their lives, females with babies from rape are outcasts. Nonetheless, Grace named her child Opoyo Rwot, which means “thank God.”

According to Halim, the Lord’s Resistance Army, was initially funded by the same politicians supporting genocide in Darfur.

Halim also said the Darfur Action Committee on campus has been very supportive of UCLA’s chapter of Invisible Children and is hoping to coordinate a benefit with them by the end of the school year.

Students interested in joining

Invisible Children can send an e-mail to icvolunteer@gmail.com.