For 24 years, a madman named Joseph Kony has been enlisting child soldiers for his Lord’s Resistance Army, a theocratic separatist group of Uganda that has abducted an estimated 30,000 children and displaced 1.6 million people since 1986. Even after they manage to escape military service, many child soldiers suffer severe psychological trauma and emotional shame over having been forced to commit brutal acts like the murders of their family and friends.

The women of Uganda have been working to bring these children home. Rape survivors, widows and mothers have been using the power of song (transmitted by radio or word of mouth) to encourage the “invisible children” of Uganda to return home. Their message is forgiveness. The Voice Project is a collaboration between these Ugandan women, NGO workers and musicians to spread this message and empower the lives of Ugandans affected by their country’s civil war.

Co-founder Hunter Heaney first exchanged songs with a group of Ugandan women while working in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp along the Uganda/Sudan border in 2008. He taught the women the first song that came to mind, which was Joe Purdy’s “Suitcase.” From there began a “cover chain” of musicians who have joined to spread the women’s message and cover each other’s songs. The Voice Project website features video covers of artists ranging from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros to Devendra Banhart.

The organization is currently dedicated to building self-sustaining communities through livelihood programs, vocational training and child soldier rehabilitation.

For more information on the conflict in Uganda and how you can help The Voice Project, visit http://www.voiceproject.org/ or follow the group at http://twitter.com/thevoiceproject.