26 April 2006
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(c) Copyright 2006, Harpo Productions. All Rights Reserved.

HOST: Oprah Winfrey

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ellen Rakieten

EXCLUSIVE: THE SHOCKING STORY GEORGE CLOONEY HAS TO TELL

OPRAH WINFREY: Today, an all-new OPRAH. This is urgent. George Clooney's top secret mission; he risked his life and saw it for himself. Be the first to hear his shocking report. Then, Angelina Jolie's public plea. And Lisa Ling on location in a danger zone--children slaughtered, running all night for their lives. They need your help. It's going on now. Don't turn away. If this was happening to your child, you would want the world to know.

Ever since I heard about this story, it has kept me up at night. I told everybody I know personally, and now I'm telling you all. If we don't listen and do something now, we all are going on have blood on our hands. OPRAH SHOW special correspondent Lisa Ling is reporting from a danger zone. This story is difficult to watch, but just think what it would feel like to live it.

(Excerpt from videotape)

LISA LING reporting:

For two decades, a brutal civil war has been raging in Uganda. The government is fighting against the rebel forces of the Lord's Resistance Army, the LRA, which is led by an elusive man who believes he is God.

So, minister, who is Joseph Kony?

Honorable BAKOKO BAKORO ZOE (Former Minister of Gender, Labour, & Social Development): Joseph Kony is the commander in chief of the LRA.

LING: Why is he so bad?

Hon. ZOE: He's so bad because when he abducts the children, he just doesn't use them as child soldiers, he also uses them as sex slaves.

LING: What are some of the things that Kony and his commanders--what are some of the things they've done?

Hon. ZOE: Horrible things. They have cooked people and given the meat of the cooked people to their relatives to eat. They will ask these children to kill their own brothers, their own siblings, their parents. They have done the most horrible things anybody can mention.

LING: Over 20,000 children have been abducted from their villages by the rebels. They are tortured and used as sex slaves and soldiers. This is Richard. He was abducted from his family when he was 11 years old.

Richard was shot here and the bullet came out here.

RICHARD: Yeah.

LING: Have you ever had to kill anybody?

RICHARD: (Through translator) I was given someone to kill, and told that if I didn't kill the person, they would kill me instead.

LING: All of the children behind me were once abducted by the LRA rebels. What's eerie is that every single one of them has killed. And this is only a tiny fraction of the boys who are forced to kill. I mean, just think about the things that they've seen. And if you just look at their faces, I mean, they just have looks of utter lifelessness. I hate seeing these looks on kids' faces around the world.

Evelyn was just 14 when she was kidnapped from her home and forced to marry a rebel soldier.

Can you tell us as much as you can what life was like in the rebel camps?

EVELYN: (Through translator) There were times when it was really terrible. There was a lot of beating and then there was a lot of famine.

LING: How did you get away from the rebels?

EVELYN: (Through translator) I was very pregnant and weak and couldn't walk, so they released me.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: Well, it should be every single child's most basic human right to have a safe place to sleep. Think about these children when you tuck your own children into bed tonight.

(Excerpt from videotape)

LING: Thousands of young children must flee their villages to avoid being kidnapped by the rebels. They walk up to two hours every single night. They are known as the Night Walkers. It's such a dangerous journey, even we were told our safety couldn't be guaranteed.

Do you feel nervous here, minister?

Hon. ZOE: No, this is not--this is not the best place, because people get unruly. And then we must get the security and they will come with us.

LING: Imagine your child walking up to five miles every night, and then getting literally caged in for their protection.

You speak English, right?

Mr. RENE LUSA GARICKE: Yeah.

LING: And what is your name?

Mr. GARICKE: Rene Lusa Garicke.

LING: And how old are you?

Mr. GARICKE: I'm 13 years old.

LING: Why do you come here, sweetie?

Mr. GARICKE: I come here to save my life.

LING: What do you mean by that?

Mr. GARICKE: To save my life from rebels.

LING: Look at how many children there are here. And this is only one place, one shelter. I mean, there are 6,000 night commuters who come in and out of the town every single day for their own security. It--it shouldn't--it--God, I don't even know how to put it. The fact that these kids are running for their lives every single night is just unfathomable. This shouldn't be happening to children.

Children as young as two years old are making this very dangerous trek every single day.

So would the rebels abduct babies this small?

Unidentified Man #1: No, but at times when they get them, they can end up killing such young children.

LING: So they kill the little ones?

Man #1: Yes, they kill the little ones.

LING: The little ones have to run away as well.

Man #1: They have to run away.

LING: Jeffrey was 10 years old when he was abducted from his home. For the next three years, he was forced to become a soldier.

Has this boy killed people?

Man #1: The group in which this boy was in were killing. And they were pounding people in the mortars. There's a kind of a big stick...

LING: Yeah.

Man #1: ...yeah, which we use for pounding the mortar. So that is what they use to smash with the heads of the civilians.

LING: Can you imagine all these boys? These are the most vulnerable boys. They are so small, and they have been trained to fight as rebels in the LRA. This boy was in--in the--in the rebel movement for three years. Look at his eyes.

Why is it difficult for him to look into our eyes?

Man #1: You know, their commanders are like gods, they worship them. A rebel commander can come and say, `I'm going to kill you, so you should always look down.'

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: And so these children are really being trained as weapons of mass destruction.

LING: They really are. You know, that's our big concern here in the US, weapons of mass destruction.

WINFREY: Yeah.

LING: But given what these children have seen and--and the--the acts of violence they've witnessed, if they're not helped, they will become weapons of mass destruction.

WINFREY: OK. So explain again, the children are caged at night in order--because that's the only way they can protect the children from being kidnapped by the rebels. So they gather them all together in a place where they can secure them, and then they march every night to this caged area and then march back into the villages for the day.

LING: Every single night...

WINFREY: Night.

LING: ...and every morning, they go back to the villages. The rebels traditionally attack villages at night. And just recently, the government and different NGOs have been erecting these camps. But before that, these kids every single night would come into town and they'd sleep on the porches of--of stores or people's homes. And at certain points, it was up to 40,000 kids moving every day.

WINFREY: Well, the reason I wanted to tell thank you story, because I just came back a couple of months ago, you're going to see the show where I went to Auschwitz with Elie Wiesel. And during World War II, we didn't have the kind of communication systems that we have today, and there were people who stood by and did nothing during the Holocaust. This is a holocaust going on right now in Africa, and everybody who hears it today can no longer say, `Oh, I didn't know that was going on.' Lisa says that this army is one of the most insidious rebel groups on the planet.

LING: They really are. The reason is because the majority of the combatants in this rebel army are abducted children. Most of them were kidnapped from their families...

WINFREY: Right.

LING: ...from their villages, and forced to fight. And--and to me, that makes them the most--the--the worst.

WINFREY: The worst.

All right. So we're going to talk later on about what we can do. What else do we know about the LRA leader?

LING: Well, the--the leader of the LRA is a man named Joseph Kony, and he's very elusive. You know, this--this movement has been around for about a decade. They don't know where he is. And really, the fact that the world community has allowed this group to continue perpetrating this kind of violence, to me, is just unfathomable.

WINFREY: Yeah.

LING: And the Ugandan government has been--has been actively engaged in trying to fight them, but can't do it alone.

WINFREY: Yeah. So it's interesting, because one of the things that Elie Wiesel was saying, `Never again, never again,' but it keeps happening over and over again. Rwanda 12 years ago, the same thing, where the world stood by and did nothing.

LING: And the fact that there are so many kids in movement every day.

WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

LING: And the reason why this story is so crucial and why Americans really should think about what's happening here is because, if this were your child who had to do this every day, wouldn't up want someone to--to help? Wouldn't you want someone to--to--to give you a hand and try and stop this from happening?

WINFREY: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It affects our own humanity.

So coming up, what three young guys are doing to help the Night Walkers, and how you can get involved. They were just like you, watching on television, hearing this in the news, and asked themselves that question, `What can I do?' And later, George Clooney's secret mission. Be the first to hear his shocking report. And Angelina Jolie's urgent plea. We'll be right back.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: So I believe that by telling you this story that we can begin to rise up against this madness. As I speak, children in Uganda are being kidnapped and raped and slaughtered by rebel soldiers known as the LRA, the Lord's Resistance Army. Slaughtered. So if this was happening to you or your child, and believe me, these mothers love their children as much as you love your own, wouldn't you want the world to help you? So, six days ago, Lisa Ling met 14-year-old Evelyn Opoco, who is now living in America, far from the torture that she endured at the hands of the LRA. Look at this. Evelyn is here.

(Excerpt from videotape)

LING: I'm here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And there's a little Ugandan girl who's been living here. And when I found out her story, I really wanted to meet her.

Fourteen-year-old Evelyn's nightmare started two years ago after she was kidnapped during the night by rebel soldiers.

Tell us what you remember about when you were abducted.

Miss EVELYN OPOCO: The rebels came in to our camp where we lived. They kicked the door and took three of us in the room, plus many adults from the area.

LING: For an entire year, she says she was forced to fight and was used as a slave in their army.

Were you beaten very often?

Miss OPOCO: Sometimes they give us a full bucket of water for you to drink all of it. So when you cannot finish, they beat you all over.

LING: They beat you because you couldn't drink the water?

Miss OPOCO: (Nods head yes)

LING: During one violent gunfight, a bomb was dropped from a plane. One of the rebel commanders used Evelyn as a shield, pushing her body in front of his. When the bomb exploded, shrapnel tore into her face.

Miss OPOCO: I ran and fell under the trees. And I was scared. I looked to my left, I saw two girls were dead. And one woman in front of me was also dying.

LING: How did you feel when the bomb hit?

Miss OPOCO: I felt like I was dead. I was not breathing right. I was in severe pain.

LING: When you saw your face for the first time, how did you feel?

Miss OPOCO: It was a very ugly skin.

LING: Who saved you?

Miss OPOCO: After one week of staying in another camp without food, no medicine, no one was caring for me, and they told me that `If you cannot walk, we are going to kill you.' I ran away.

LING: Government soldiers found Evelyn in an abandoned battlefield and took her to a nearby hospital. Unable to get the serious care she needed, Children's Medical Missions flew Evelyn to Indiana to see a doctor.

Can we just see for one second without your handkerchief? One second. I think you look great.

Miss OPOCO: (Laughs)

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: So far, Evelyn has had four surgeries to reconstruct her face. Two more are planned before she goes back to Uganda. Evelyn is here.

We can't even imagine what she's had to endure. Why did you think it was important, obviously, to tell this story?

LING: Well, you know, Evelyn--first of all, I just have to say, even though she's feeling shy right now, Evelyn has the most amazing personality and the most infectious, adorable laugh. I don't mean to embarrass you right now, Evelyn. But, you know, she--to me, she--she's a physical reminder of what's happening to thousands of kids as we speak in Uganda right now. She was very fortunate that Daryl and Lynn here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have allowed her to come and live with them in the United States. But, you know, she...

WINFREY: Is she learning English? Learning English? Are you learning English?

DARYL: Very much.

LYNN: Can you say hi?

WINFREY: Learning English?

LING: She--she understands quite a bit. She's just a little embarrassed. But Evelyn's English is...

WINFREY: And so, how did this happen? Because everybody wonders what they can do. How did this happen that you ended up with her in your home?

LYNN: It actually came through our church.

WINFREY: Uh-huh.

LYNN: They were looking for a host family, and I thought why not? We've got a big enough home and plenty of resources. We needed to take her in. And we were fortunate that we've got somebody else, Rachel takes her during the day for us while we're at work, so.

WINFREY: Well, this is interesting. I was saying to Lisa during the commercial break that we, you know, this country, we have therapy for everything. So I can't even imagine when you've been--your body's been used as a shield, you've been raped, you've been, you know, a part of an army where you were forced to kill and watch other people die--what kind of psychological help...

LYNN: She's amazing. She went through the Rachelle Center in Lira, Uganda.

WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

LYNN: And they worked with her for a year. She actually, when she came to us, had a social worker with her who had worked all of those things through. And she's pretty amazing.

WINFREY: Yeah.

LYNN: She has a very, very strong spirit, and she's very...

WINFREY: Yeah. Well, all those kids to. You have to.

LYNN: Yeah.

WINFREY: Yeah.

LING: Despite everything she's been through, again, she just--she's really popular in school, she has had a ton of friends. And, you know, you two are--are such a blessing for--for--for taking her in. But again, she's--this is, you know, this is happening...

WINFREY: Now. This is happening now. And it's like when you all just saw that Night Walkers piece--the first time I saw it, the first time Lisa showed it to me a while back, I mean, I could not sleep at night. I would get up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom, and I'd think `the children are walking now.' Or I'd go to the refrigerator to get something to eat and I'd think, `they're not eating, the children are walking now.'

Thank you, Evelyn, thank you very much, for being so brave.

I know that millions of you--millions of you watching right now, because I'm telling you, there's a holocaust going on right now. I know you want to help but you don't know what to do. You don't know what to do. I want to you meet these young guys who once felt just like that, they didn't know what to do, but they figured it out.

(Excerpt from videotape)

JASON: We were three college students from Southern California doing a little soul-searching. We heard about atrocities against children in Africa and decided to get on a plane. On a stop in Uganda, we came face to face with the Night Walkers. We met Jacob and his brother Thomas who had just escaped from the rebel army. They were being hunted by their captors. They slept at the bus park at night, but during the day, they hid from the rebels in this small room.

JACOB: If possible, you can kill us, you kill us. For us, we don't want now to stay. We are only two, no one taking care of us. We are not going to school. So how are we...

JASON: You would rather die than stay on earth?

JACOB: Yes.

JASON: Now? Even now?

JACOB: Even now.

JASON: They started talking about their brother who was murdered by the rebels. We asked Jacob what he would say if his brother was still here.

JACOB: If I saw my brother once again, I don't...

JASON: Like many children, Jacob and Thomas walk miles and miles for a safe place to sleep every night. In this hospital, over 1,000 children are crammed into two small rooms. We looked at one another and said `This would never happen in America.' And if it did, it would not go unnoticed. We state this to people, and they honestly respond by saying, `That's Africa. You can't compare the two worlds.' We ask you, `Why?' Coming from a culture where the youth are exceptionally valued, we never realized so many children could go unseen, that so many beautiful faces could be invisible.

When we got back to America, we turned our video diaries into a film. We crossed the country in an RV, showing it to as many people as we could.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: Bravo to you guys. Bravo to you guys. And so, their efforts paid off. They've raised over half a million dollars for the Night Walkers that you just saw and other children in Uganda. Three hundred students are now receiving an education and have a Ugandan mentor. They're also being given health care, food, and a safe place to sleep. Well done. Well done, guys. And there's a nationwide walk coming up, right, Jason? I understand there--there is a nationwide walk coming up?

JASON: There is. Thousands and thousands of Americans heard this story and they're now taking action. They want to end this war. They've heard it. And this Saturday, April 29th, it's happening. In three days' time, you can go online and sign up at oprah.com or invisiblechildren.com, sign up your name and join thousands of Americans who are laying in the street of their downtown city centers in over 130 cities across America, and even around the world, to end this war once and for all.

(Graphic on screen)

Global Night Commute

Saturday, April 29, 2006

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WINFREY: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much.

Next, the story George Clooney risked his life to tell. He's bringing it to us first. We'll be right back with George.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: This is the first time Oscar winner George Clooney is telling this story to the world. He's standing by, and we're going to talk to him in a moment. Just last week, George and his father, Nick, were filming in an extremely dangerous location. George wasn't making a Hollywood movie there, he was on a mission halfway around the world. George Clooney asked that we keep his whereabouts secret until he returned safely to the United States. This is where he was and this is what he wants you to know.

(Excerpt from videotape)

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: The Sudan is a country in North Africa with a population of 40 million people. It has long been a nation ruled by fundamentalist Islamic leaders who believe only those born of Arab descent are pure Muslims. Darfur, a region in the west of Sudan, is home to six million Muslims of African descent. For decades, the African Muslims in Darfur were treated as second-class citizens, systematically kept powerless and in poverty. In 2003, to protest the Arab-dominated government's abuse and oppression of the people of Darfur, African rebels attacked a military outpost. Two weeks later, the Sudanese government unleashed armed Arab tribal militias. The mission: to not only kill those who planned the uprising, but wipe out their entire race.

The government-sponsored murdering militias are known as the Janjaweed, Arab for "evil on horseback." For three years, the Janjaweed have burned a path through the entire Darfur region, torching villages, livestock and farms, gang-raping women and children and slaughtering entire families in cold blood. The United Nations calls the genocide in Sudan "today's greatest humanitarian crisis." Nearly 400,000 dead, millions homeless and on the brink of starvation, all as the world turns a blind eye.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: Well, George and his father just got back from Sudan. They've been editing all night to bring us this first-hand account. Take a look.

(Excerpt from videotape)

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Hi, Oprah. Right now, we're standing here on the border of Chad and Darfur. My father and I thought we'd come over and take a look for ourselves.

We started in south Sudan. It took two days to get to the border of Darfur. We heard there were a lot of refugees pouring south. We found a village called Jacques with over a thousand displaced families. This isn't a refugee camp, there are no tents to shelter them, most just sleep under trees. No food, no water. These people had jobs and property before the Arab Janjaweed militia burned their villages, raped their women, and killed their children.

Mr. NICK CLOONEY (George's Dad): Back in Darfur, did you personally lose any relatives or friends who were killed?

Unidentified Man #2: (Foreign language spoken)

Unidentified Man #3: For him personally, he lost nine from his immediate family members.

Unidentified Man #4: (Foreign language spoken)

Man #3: (Translating) At night, we were sleeping, and then we--and then we heard a gunshot, and then we got scattered. When we came back, we found that they were dead.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Were they singling out any gender? Were they going after women or men? Or was it just sort of just a general attack?

Unidentified Woman: (Translated onscreen) Children, women, they were not differentiating.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Since the government of Sudan won't let anyone into Darfur, including UN officials, we traveled north to Chad. Not great timing on our part since Chad was in the midst of a coup. We landed in Djamena, where nine days earlier armed rebels stormed the city. Having failed, they moved east towards Abeche. So did we. On the border of Darfur is a refugee camp called Oure Cassoni; 29,000 survivors of the massacre in Sudan. There, we met a girl named Gillian who helped start the camp over two years ago.

When people first started showing up here, how many a day were coming in at the time?

Ms. GILLIAN DUNN (Emergency Response Director, IRC): Hundreds. I mean, on--on Sundays, we would have 500 people coming in. And, of course, they lost all their possessions. They all had to leave very quickly and just came with what they could carry.

Mr. N. CLOONEY: There are scores of Oure Cassonis on both sides of the borders. Two million people away from their own homes. Time is running out.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Oprah! Say `Hi, Oprah.' Hi, Oprah. Hi, Oprah.

Kids: (In unison) Hi, Oprah!

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: There we go.

Kids: (In unison) There we go!

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: (Laughs) Beautiful. Beautiful.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: Hi, George. George is joining us via satellite from New York City. Hi, George.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Hi, Oprah.

WINFREY: How can you even begin to translate to our viewers what life is like in--in--in those refugee camps?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, the refugee camps are somewhat better than the villages that we were in before. The villages are tough. There is no shelter at all. They have the rainy season coming, which is going to make it even more difficult for them, because there's--because of the flooding and because they have no shelter, and so--all of the other issues. Malaria and all of those issues are going to become a problem. The refugee camps themselves, the danger, of course, is--they're getting some help from several different groups, but from the IRC in particular, who we were with, visiting there--but their biggest danger is around them, the Janjaweed militia patrol around it, and wait for the women to go out at night to get wood and they rape them. The women go out to get the wood because if the men did they would kill them, so they opt for rape.

WINFREY: So, George, what--what made you and your father just decide to go?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, we were--I'm really slow to the--to the African movement, I'm ashamed to say. I knew about it, but I haven't done much on my own. I started reading--I remember when Colin Powell came out about three years ago and said this is genocide. And that's a rather significant thing. We have only really claimed genocide a couple times over--since 1948.

WINFREY: Right.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: And then Nicholas Christof was writing articles that he just won the Pulitzer Prize for. Samantha Powell wrote a book that also won a Pulitzer Prize. And I read those. And I'd had a fairly decent year, and I thought, you know, I should cash in some of that capital on bringing some attention to things that--that concerned me, and this one concerned me. My father's a newsman, so I called him up and I said `I think maybe we should go there.' And he said `I'll--I'll come with you.'

WINFREY: And so when you first arrived and you--and you saw the kind of devastation and--and the kind of horror there, what was that like for you?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: It's--it's everything you imagine. You know, we've all seen these images forever on television late at night, and it's all of those things that you would imagine, and it's so much worse. There's absolute hopelessness.

WINFREY: Mm-hmm.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: There's nothing they can do. it's not like--you know, we sort of pride ourselves in America and the idea that we might be able to pull ourselves up somehow.

WINFREY: Right.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: There's no chance of that. If you are lucky enough to get away from rape and murder and get to one of these refugee camps, then it's security every night that you have to worry about.

WINFREY: So what is the most important thing you want our viewers to know?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: I think that, you know, we're in a time right now where we don't--we're hard to be outraged, somehow.

WINFREY: Yeah.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: It feels as if, you know, every time you turn on the television, there's--20 kids were killed somewhere. And things don't seem to matter as much to us. Or they do, but they don't last. And we don't get up out of our chairs and do something. Call a congressman, put in a call to the president. Here's the point. The president wants to do this, he said `Not on our watch.' He needs the political capital to do this. The UN wants to do it, but they need the political capital. This is not the United States' problem, this is the world's problem. So we need everyone to get up out of their chairs and help support all of these administrations, the US government, the UN, to--to try and effect some change here, because this is, without question, genocide.

WINFREY: Next, where George Clooney is going to be this weekend and why he wants you there. We'll be right back with George.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: In today's USA Today newspaper, to bring awareness to the crisis in Sudan, Angelina Jolie has written a letter to all Americans urging us to get involved. She writes, "I'm an actress and certainly no foreign policy expert, but I've traveled twice and believe that if Americans knew four simple facts that I've learned about Darfur, they would demand action from our government and would act themselves." The letter goes on to detail the genocide going on in Darfur, and then says, "We can stop this, but only if government leaders make it a high priority."

Just last week, George Clooney and his father, Nick, took their cameras to the Sudan in Africa to bring us a first-hand account of what is happening there right now. And George is telling this story for the first time today. A genocide is taking place in Darfur, a region in the west of Sudan. You should know that it is the gravest human rights crisis in the world today. Nearly 400,000 people are already dead and millions more are homeless and on the brink of starvation, with no end in sight.

So what are you going to do now, George? You've seen it, and now what are you going to do?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, there's a couple of things we're going to do. There's a thing at the National Press Club in Washington that we're going to do and talk about it and try and keep it in the public eye. There's a march this Sunday in Washington and San Francisco and several cities, and people are going to get up and speak. And we're going to try to get it out as much as we can. It is the first genocide of the 21st century, and that's not something to be proud of and to brag about. So I think that the first thing is to--for us, is to keep it as--as much in the public eye as we possibly can, and to ask as much as we can of our public figures. It's--look, this is a hard thing to do. There's no easy answers to this. It's tough what the UN would have to do. It's tough what the United States would have to do. But we need...

WINFREY: When you--but, George, can I interrupt? When you--when you were saying earlier that--that they need political capital, does that mean that everybody watching right now, the 10 million people around the United States and the world, should call their congressmen, their senators, they should go online?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Sure. There--there's a number you can call. There's a--you could call--you could go online to savedarfur.org. Or there's a number you can call, which is to the White House, which is an 800 number, 224-2084, and register your name with the White House. I think whatever you can do to bring--to let people know that we're...

WINFREY: That switchboard operator is going to be very happy you gave that number out today.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Yeah. Well, it seems like a good idea.

WINFREY: So will you be at this rally on Sudan on Sunday?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: I'm going. Elie Wiesel will be there.

WINFREY: Yeah.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Barak Obama will be there. It's--there's going to be quite a turnout, and it should be interesting to see who speaks.

(Graphic on screen)

Save Darfur Coalition: Rally To Stop Genocide April 30, 2006-Washington, DC

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WINFREY: And so what is your hope, George, for the people that you met there?

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, I don't know. You know, your hope is for everything that you were talking about with Lisa before, with those young children who have to walk at night. Your hope is that they can have a decent night's sleep and some food and some shelter. Just basic human dignities. I don't know that that's necessarily possible. But the first and foremost I want, whatever we can to make them safe. That's our job as human beings, it seems.

WINFREY: Yeah. I would say that our own humanity is at stake with this crisis.

Thank you, George Clooney. Thank you.

Mr. GEORGE CLOONEY: Thank you, Oprah.

WINFREY: Go to Oprah.com for all the details of this rally. And we'll be right back.

Coming up, how you, our viewers, literally saved the lives of 6,000 women. A proud update we have to show you next. Bye, George.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: Lisa just said something I thought was interesting. Go ahead, say it again.

LING: Well, I think that the assumption is that Americans don't care about what's going on in the rest of the world, but I completely disagree with that. Our media just doesn't give us the opportunity to know what's going on in the world. They're--they're busy covering the same three stories when there is a genocide happening in Sudan.

WINFREY: That's right. They're more interested in Tom and Katie's baby.

LING: That's right. Than the fact 400,000 people have been slaughtered.

WINFREY: That's absolutely the truth.

The stories that George Glooney and Lisa Ling brought us today remind us, once you hear it, you can no longer say you didn't know. You can't say that after today. Maybe you feel like you have no real power to change anything, but the truth is that you really--you watching right now, are the only hope that all of these people have. I want you to see what is possible when you, our viewers, come together. Not too long ago, Lisa brought us a story about women terrorized in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Look at what happened.

(Excerpt from January 24, 2005)

LING: Almost four million innocent people have been massacred in the Congo. And like most people around the globe, you probably had no idea. If you're a woman, you're constantly in danger of rebels who are hiding in the forests coming and attacking your village and gang-raping you, possibly in front of your children.

HONARATHA (53): (Through translator) I spent a year and two months there. I was treated like an animal. Each day, I was raped by a different man.

NABITU (45): (Through translator) At 10:00 at night, those hood people have already surrounded our house. Just when we went to bed, they knocked at the door.

LING: That's when Nabitu's vicious torture began. The men began carving her arms and legs with sharp knives.

NABITU: (Through translator) I lost many teeth because of kicks, the way they beat me, the gun in my arm which broke my bone. It was very serious.

LING: Nabitu's brutal attackers then ordered her young son to force open her legs and tie them to a tree.

NABITU: (Through translator) Before being raped, I suffered from tortures. The commanders say, `Shave her. Cut her hair on the vagina.' They pulled all the hairs from the vagina until they finished.

LING: How many men raped you?

NABITU: Eight men, and my belly became so big.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: I know. And I know a lot of people watching, you say, `Well, gosh, there are--they're, like, savages.' It's savage what is happening to them. But these are people who have normal lives in their culture. They care for their children, they're working women. They go out into the field, they farm every day. They love their children as much as you love your children. And this savage, awful thing is happening to them.

Again, if you think that there's nothing you can do to make a difference, here's proof that you have and that you can.

(Excerpt from videotape)

WINFREY: The violence continues in the Congo, but you need to know that you are making a real difference. Our viewers opened their hearts and sent $2 1/2 million that has given over 6,000 women a better life.

Ms. ZAINAB SALBI (Women for Women International): Since the Congo show last year, more than 50,000 American women and women from all over the world helped support women in Congo, both in letter writings and sending them financial support.

How many women here have been sponsored?

(Women raise their hands)

JOSIANE (44): (Through translator) The money we see from our sisters is very helpful to us.

ERNESTINE (42): (Through translator) Today, our children are supported. Our children can go to school. Our children have clothing.

WINFREY: And dozens of learning centers have been opened across the country. With education, counseling and support, the women of the Congo are finding confidence and courage now to speak out.

Ms. SALBI: We provide them with vocational skills training, with women's rights training. And the difference is they're breaking their silence, and instead of hiding in their homes, they're actually doing something about their life.

And we were able to open a ceramic factory here, where we're teaching all kinds of things, where they can actually sell it in the local market and make a living. We were able to do a survey of 600 women who graduate from our program, and 92 percent of them were now earning their living, sometimes up to $120 a month. This is significant in a country where the average income sometimes is 20 cents a day.

Oprah, I'm here with Vanenci, one of the five women who were interviewed last year by Lisa. And she walked three and a half hours just to learn about women's rights, just to learn how to read and write. Today, she has built a house, all of her kids go to school, she bought a land where she is farming.

WINFREY: Remember Nabitu? A brutal beating left her arm mangled and useless. Your donations helped pay for a much-needed operation.

NABITU: (Through translator) There are so many changes in my life. I'm doing business. I sell cloths. I sell other raw materials.

Ms. SALBI: We believe there is a businesswoman in every woman. The beauty of what I'm seeing here is that there is hope in these women. Their eyes are shining and they do talk about hope.

(End of excerpt)

WINFREY: So, my thank you to you, our viewers. Wait and see what else--wait and see what else you've done next. Actress Lucy Liu tells us what you did for 50,000 children there. Yes. Money makes a difference.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: When our viewers come together, big things are possible. Two months ago, actress Lucy Liu went on assignment for the OPRAH SHOW. She traveled to the epicenter of one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, in Pakistan. She was there. And in just 15 seconds, a massive earthquake reduced an entire town to rubble. Seventy thousands people were buried alive, half of them were children, and millions of people were left homeless. Here's Lucy with a special update about what you, your viewers, have done. This is what your money did.

(Excerpt from videotape)

Ms. LUCY LIU (Actress and UNICEF Ambassador): Hi, Oprah. I just wanted to thank you and all of your viewers for having the show about Pakistan and UNICEF.

(Excerpt from March 1, 2006, Balakot, Pakistan)

Ms. LIU: Even though it's been months since the earthquake, there are still four million people that have been displaced out of their own homes. And it's going to be a long time before they can get back into where they used to be. And I think the people have a sense of--of fear, and it's incredibly overwhelming and--and it's--it's heartbreaking.

SALEEM (12): (Through translator) I was at the school. The roof fell down. I heard the screams of all the children who were under the rubble.

Ms. LIU: Two hundred students at this school died when it collapsed on top of them. Today, the children who survived study alongside a mass grave where many of their classmates are buried.

(End of March 1 excerpt)

Ms. LIU: To date, we have about half a million dollars that was donated from your viewers. And that makes such a huge, huge difference. Even though you wrote in and said there was not--you didn't have a lot of money, 50 cents, it was a dollar--if you take all of those amounts and you pool them together, it has created $500,000. So your effort, as little as you think it was, has gone a long, long way. Your money will go towards 200 school tents that will help educate 8,000 children; 570 school-in-a box kits, which is going to help 50,000 children learn and be educated; 1,000 families receive purified water, which is so essential to them, as well as wool blankets and medical kits, and warm kits for children for jackets and socks and shoes. I'm eternally grateful, and UNICEF is eternally grateful. I--I don't know what to say, except I'm incredibly impressed, and I will always, always tune in and see how I can help in my own way as well.

(End of excerpts)

WINFREY: Thank you, Lucy Liu.

No matter what you have to give, she was saying, and I was talking to the--the--you college guys, about this, too. You notice when you go to Africa and you talk to these children, first of all, it's not like in the United States where there's this sense of entitlement to anything. So the least--the kindest word, the simplest thing that you do has major impact. Did you not find that, too?

JASON: Definitely. Totally. And they know about America. They've heard about it. And they're sitting there saying, `My friends in America, can they help me? Can they do something?' And we get overwhelmed hearing all these stories, all these stories, but really, they're--they're real people, real faces with names just like you said, they're children.

WINFREY: Yeah. They're not invisible.

JASON: Yes.

WINFREY: We'll be right back.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: Today, you have a decision. As Lucy Liu said, it can be 50 cents or a dollar; when you pool it together, it goes a long way. Logon to oprah.com for details on how you can help. Once you know, you know. You can't deny that. We'll be right back.

(Announcements)

WINFREY: This really is a question of our own humanity being at stake. Because once you hear about this kind of suffering going on in the world, to stand by and do nothing...

LING: It was a heavy show today. But, you know, I think that--I think we are all enriched for knowing that this exists and that this is--this is going on.

WINFREY: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I thank you for telling this story.

And, George, thank you and your father. Thank you.

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