Gulu Walk 2008 - Jerusalem

“Because this is not about a little blonde girl named Madeleine, people don’t care.”

A group of British students of Jewish origin participated yesterday in Jerusalem in a protest march against the abduction of over 30000 Ugandan children over the last decades. The march is organized within the worldwide “Gulu Walk” campaign, which protests against the situation of Ugandan children in a conflict that has lasted for over 22 years.

According to this information, which was advanced today by daily Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the majority of these abducted children have become soldiers or sex slaves for the conflicting forces.

"The conflict's being going on for 22 years, and as it's not on our doorstep - and it's not about a little blonde girl called Madeleine McCann - people don't care", protested Deborah Blausten, the organisation’s spokesperson in Jerusalem.

The march started at 6 p.m. local time in front of the Supreme Court and ended a few hours later on Zion Square (Kikar Tzion).


source: SOS Maddie

GuluWalk is an initiative started by two Canadians to highlight the plight of Acholi children in northern Uganda who used to trek each night to town centers in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader – for fear of being maimed, raped, abducted or even killed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel paramilitary group that has been operating in northern Uganda since 1987.

Each night, tens of thousands of children referred to as "night commuters", ranging between the ages of 3 and 17, walk up to 20 kilometres (12.45 miles) from Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Camps to larger towns, especially Gulu, in search of safety from the LRA. It is estimated that around 20,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since 1987 for use as soldiers and sex slaves.

Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward first heard the stories of the night commuters of northern Uganda in the spring of 2005. They read unbelievable accounts of children -- as many as 40,000 -- walking from their rural villages into the town of Gulu and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and avoiding abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for use in the country's 21-year civil war.

In the midst of this conflict, over 1.7-million people have been displaced, on top of thousands of night commuters. These displaced persons have been forced into abhorrent conditions in camps where hundreds of people are dying every week because of a lack of clean water, food and medical care.

The plight of the children sparked the idea for GuluWalk, a 31-day night commute in support of these children. Every morning in July 2005, Adrian and Kieran walked 12.5 kilometres into downtown Toronto to sleep in front of city hall. At sunrise, after about four hours sleep, they made the trek home. Both men continued to work full-time and attempted to maintain their usual daily routine, to mimic the lifestyle endured by the Acholi children of northern Uganda.

Over the 31 days they walked 775km in 154 hours 18 minutes and 872,739 steps, and there was everything from front-page news to freezing cold nights to face-to-face rat encounters.

The intention of the GuluWalk was not to attempt to replicate the terror, fear and uncertainty of the real 'night commuters', who walk for their lives every single day. This was believed to be impossible because of the magnitude of the sitation faced by the children of northern Uganda. Instead, Adrian and Kieran walked to tell these children's story and draw attention to their plight.

What started as a 31-day attempt by two people to better understand the ordeal of the children of northern Uganda, has now grown into an impassioned worldwide movement for peace.

GuluWalks are taking place worldwide on Saturday, the 25th of October 2008. If you would like to participate in a GuluWalk this year, visit the Where Will You Walk website to find a walk that is taking place near your location.

By Astro

pm wrote:“Because this is not about a little blonde girl named Madeleine, people don’t care.”

A group of British students of Jewish origin participated yesterday in Jerusalem in a protest march against the abduction of over 30000 Ugandan children over the last decades. The march is organized within the worldwide “Gulu Walk” campaign, which protests against the situation of Ugandan children in a conflict that has lasted for over 22 years.

According to this information, which was advanced today by daily Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the majority of these abducted children have become soldiers or sex slaves for the conflicting forces.

"The conflict's being going on for 22 years, and as it's not on our doorstep - and it's not about a little blonde girl called Madeleine McCann - people don't care", protested Deborah Blausten, the organisation’s spokesperson in Jerusalem.

The march started at 6 p.m. local time in front of the Supreme Court and ended a few hours later on Zion Square (Kikar Tzion).


source: SOS Maddie

How very true!!!

pm wrote:GuluWalk is an initiative started by two Canadians to highlight the plight of Acholi children in northern Uganda who used to trek each night to town centers in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader – for fear of being maimed, raped, abducted or even killed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel paramilitary group that has been operating in northern Uganda since 1987.

Each night, tens of thousands of children referred to as "night commuters", ranging between the ages of 3 and 17, walk up to 20 kilometres (12.45 miles) from Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Camps to larger towns, especially Gulu, in search of safety from the LRA. It is estimated that around 20,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since 1987 for use as soldiers and sex slaves.

Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward first heard the stories of the night commuters of northern Uganda in the spring of 2005. They read unbelievable accounts of children -- as many as 40,000 -- walking from their rural villages into the town of Gulu and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and avoiding abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for use in the country's 21-year civil war.

In the midst of this conflict, over 1.7-million people have been displaced, on top of thousands of night commuters. These displaced persons have been forced into abhorrent conditions in camps where hundreds of people are dying every week because of a lack of clean water, food and medical care.

The plight of the children sparked the idea for GuluWalk, a 31-day night commute in support of these children. Every morning in July 2005, Adrian and Kieran walked 12.5 kilometres into downtown Toronto to sleep in front of city hall. At sunrise, after about four hours sleep, they made the trek home. Both men continued to work full-time and attempted to maintain their usual daily routine, to mimic the lifestyle endured by the Acholi children of northern Uganda.

Over the 31 days they walked 775km in 154 hours 18 minutes and 872,739 steps, and there was everything from front-page news to freezing cold nights to face-to-face rat encounters.

The intention of the GuluWalk was not to attempt to replicate the terror, fear and uncertainty of the real 'night commuters', who walk for their lives every single day. This was believed to be impossible because of the magnitude of the sitation faced by the children of northern Uganda. Instead, Adrian and Kieran walked to tell these children's story and draw attention to their plight.

What started as a 31-day attempt by two people to better understand the ordeal of the children of northern Uganda, has now grown into an impassioned worldwide movement for peace.

GuluWalks are taking place worldwide on Saturday, the 25th of October 2008. If you would like to participate in a GuluWalk this year, visit the Where Will You Walk website to find a walk that is taking place near your location.

By Astro

Thank goodness for good people out there helping them

I have to hang on to the hope that there are people who will fight cruelty and injustice, otherwise I would go off my rocker.

Good Luck to everybody who tries to right a wrong.