~a smattering of sarah~

Gulu Walk

Posted on Fri, 2007-01-12 16:12 by sarahfelicity
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If you feel like a little tear-jerker to set your weekend off to a good start, then let me introduce you to the GuluWalk. In case you haven't heard the story...

Every night, in rural northern and war-torn Uganda, tens of thousands of children walk hours into the nearest urban centre, to avoid abduction by the army and to sleep in relative safety. In the morning, the trudge back to their villages again, to work for the day, and then do it again the following evening.

Stop for a second. Can you even imagine that?

So a couple of years ago, two guys in Toronto found out about this, and decided to follow this routine for a month, to raise awareness about these children in Uganda. One of them kept a blog, and it's been making me cry as I read it. The words of support from Ugandans and others are heart-wrenching to me.

Now, the GuluWalk has grown into an international peace movement, and an annual event with walks happening all over the world. Though the founders actually walked every night for a month, then slept downtown only to walk back home in the morning, they've scaled the concept back for broader public appeal. So fear not, you can now participate without having to walk all night and sleep in the streets.

The GuluWalk program has raised a LOT of money, just by getting lots of regular people involved. Their fundraising backend is powered by Artez, a company that I'm doing some work for. And I'm blogging about it just because I find it pretty inspiring, and thought other people might too...

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About this Site

A hodge-podge of random thoughts, musings, and links – sometimes about social change, sometimes about technology and the web, sometimes about yoga, and occasionally about knitting. Sometimes (because I'm a Canadian girl with deep roots in the British Isles) I even write about the weather.

I'm a yoga teacher, founder of Yoga for Geeks, and a freelance web writer, strategist, and project manager. I also help to co-create the amazing Web of Change Conference, every September in beautiful British Columbia.

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