For Kristen Cattell, the effort to raise awareness of the war in the African nation of Uganda begins in her hometown.

Cattell, 19, was one of about 1,000 people who began an overnight stay in University Park on Saturday as part of a worldwide event to shed light on the atrocities in East Africa.

Of particular importance are the thousands of children affected and displaced by the civil war that has raged for 23 years.

“These are young, innocent children who have so much left of their lives,” said Cattell, an Indiana University freshman who helped coordinate the event.

The gathering was part of a global event involving nine countries and 100 cities that was orchestrated by Invisible Children, a nonprofit movement created in 2004 after the film “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” highlighted the plight of child soldiers in northern Uganda.

Participants were asked to “abduct” themselves, march to a public place and wait until they were “rescued” by prominent figures and media. The rescue symbolizes the power of politicians and the media to bring the war to an end and send home the estimated 30,000 child soldiers abducted from their families.

Luckily for the Indianapolis participants, a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., planned to stop by, as well as Jeffrey L. Sparks, president and CEO of the Heartland Film Festival.

Cattell said Indy’s event was the second-largest in the Midwest, behind Chicago’s.

“As long as our government officials get involved, and our public figures get involved, then I think our job here is accomplished.”

By early Saturday evening, a few hundred mostly college-age participants had unrolled sleeping bags and sat talking or reading about the war. They arrived there after marching from White River State Park and around Monument Circle.

“Nobody is doing anything to stop it,” Ivy Tech Community College student Tyler Thomen, 19, Plainfield, said of the war, adding, “I can’t go to Uganda, so I want to do what I can to help here.”

Ball State University students Seth Winn and Stephanie Dunn, both 22, brought tents.

“Even though we’re so far away, people in the United States do have the opportunity to have a voice,” Dunn said. “People in Uganda don’t have that opportunity.”