A University student swapped the luxury of dorm rooms and the meal plan for life on the road, traveling by van on a three-month tour to raise awareness about the ongoing civil war in Uganda.

Caitlin Nossett, a sophomore from Roswell, and three other “roadies” make up Invisible Children’s Deep South team, a group on a mission to bring the plight of Ugandans to college campuses in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.

“The point of the tour is more about raising awareness than fundraising,” Nossett said. “It’s about changing lives in the U.S. and solving the problems here of apathy.”

Nossett, who founded the University chapter of Invisible Children in 2007, was involved with the movement for more than a year before she decided to take a semester off to commit to its cause.

“It’s not glamorous living out of a van,” Nossett said.

The roadies rely on the goodwill of their hosts at each venue to provide shelter, usually ending up on couches or, if they are lucky, a spare bed.

“It’s very exhausting, very cramped,” she said. “But despite all those inconveniences of living out of a suitcase it’s worth it.”

More than 1.5 million Ugandans have been displaced because of a civil war that has crippled the nation for more than two decades.

On the tour, the roadies show footage of internally displaced camps and personal accounts of child soldiers filmed by Invisible Children volunteers.

Funds raised at screenings benefit existing projects in Uganda, including the building of schools and scholarship funds for nearly 700 former child soldiers.

“IC is trying to help them help themselves,” Nossett said, adding that Invisible Children is completely supported by the college-aged youth who began the movement in 2003.

“They’re not dealing with the government,” she said. “It’s more about helping the people there than about the political agenda.”

At a screening at a civil rights memorial in Montgomery, Ala., Nossett said the gravity of her role in the human rights movement for Uganda became apparent.

“To be able to show the film at the memorial center and to know that we’re part of the ongoing fight against oppression was the best part,” she said.

Nossett and the Deep South roadies return to Georgia Feb. 29, stopping by the University March 1.

“This is my way of being part of something bigger than me,” she said. “If people see what’s happening in Uganda with

their own eyes, then they can’t deny what’s happening and they will feel compelled to act.”