GuluWalk organizers hoping for 100
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Jennifer Keeling, co-organizer of GuluWalk Halifax. Photo credit: Amber Nicholson
About 30,000 people around the world will walk on Saturday, Oct. 24 to raise money and awareness for children in Northern Uganda.
Jennifer Keeling, co-organizer of GuluWalk, has been involved since it began in 2005. She travelled to Northern Uganda to see first-hand why the GuluWalk was created.
"I am in awe with the generosity of people who often had nothing but were willing to give everything," says Keeling. "I would ask them what North Americans could do to help and they would reply, 'Tell our story. If people know, they will help.'"
Guluwalk was founded in Toronto, Ont., when Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward heard about the night commuters of Uganda.
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GuluWalk is held in more than 75 cities in 16 different countries.
Night commuters refers to some children in Uganda who walk 12.5 km each night to find a safe hiding from the Lord's Resistance Army. For the past 23 years, the militia has been abducting children and turning them into child soldiers.
Bradbury and Hayward wanted to make people aware of the war so, every night for an entire month, they replicated the night commuters by walking from their home to the Toronto City Hall downtown. This was about the same distance Ugandan children would travel each night to the district of Gulu to escape abduction.
This caught people's attention worldwide. For the past four years people in more than 75 cities and 16 different countries walk together on Oct. 24 for Ugandan children.
Claire Dykhuis, organizer for this year's GuluWalk in Halifax, says the walk raises about a half million dollars each year.
"This year's money is going towards building an arts and culture centre for the children of Uganda, it will be a safe place for children to go."
Haligonians can meet at 10 a.m. this Saturday at Victoria Park to participate in a one-hour walk around the downtown area. Keeling and Dykhuis are hoping for more than 100 participants in Halifax this year.
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