OVER 20 cities in the world will on Saturday embark on a major walk for the suffering children in northern Uganda.
The event called GuluWalk Day, will see residents of 42 cities hit the streets in the first-ever global show of solidarity for the ‘night commuters’ of northern Uganda.
GuluWalk Day is an international civil movement initiated by two Canadians in their 31-day GuluWalk earlier this year, aimed at raising awareness and showing support for the ‘night commuters’ and child victims.
Former UNICEF head Carol Bellamy has called northern Uganda “pretty much the worst place on earth to be a child”. Over 20,000 children have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, forced to serve as child soldiers, sex slaves and labourers.
About 1.6 million people, over 90% of the Acholi people, have been displaced in refugee camps that offer neither security nor basic provisions.
Every night as many as 40,000 children living in rural northern villages walk into Gulu town and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and to avoid abduction by the rebel army.
From Toronto (Canada) to London (UK) to Washington, DC, Gulu and Kampala, GuluWalk Day has positioned itself to be the largest ever international push for peace for this all-but-forgotten 19-year-long civil war in northern Uganda.
