Caity Sackeroff, Tory Scholz, Zoe Roberts and Terin De Wolf, with the aid of other committee members of GuluWalk Halifax, have been planning events since August in the lead up to the symbolic walk to get people pumped. They’ve organized such events as the Picnicface Comedy Night and the film screening of War Dance.
“It’s just an easy and simple way for people to get involved,” says Tory Scholz who’s been involved with GuluWalk Halifax since its beginning.
This year’s GuluWalk looks to be bigger in many ways to previous years. The Picnicface benefit was a huge success, with Yuk Yuks at the Westin Hotel packed to capacity. Businesses such as Just Us are donating baked goods and coffee to the event on Saturday. Members of GuluWalk Halifax have also been giving presentations at various high schools in the HRM to get more young people involved.
“We’ve been giving presentation at high schools in the area, two in Lunenburg and a few at Citadel High, telling students about the situation in Northern Uganda, how the GuluWalk started and how they can get involved,” says Zoe Roberts, a fourth-year student in International Development Studies at Dalhousie. A group of students at Citadel High have since formed their own group to raise awareness about these issues.
The original GuluWalk started in 2005 by University of Toronto staffers Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward who were motivated by the sufferings of the children in Northern Uganda. Each night, thousands of children would flee their rural villages nightly to reach relatively safer places, like the regional capital, Gulu, to avoid being abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army. The guerrilla group has been fighting with the Ugandan government since 1987, and in that time, 25,000 children have been abducted. The boys are turned into child soldiers; the girls into sex slaves.
In July of 2005, the pair started walking a symbolic 12 kilometres every night. Since then, their numbers grew and now more than 30,000 people all over the world have taken to the streets to raise awareness and money around the issue.
“What we do makes a world of a difference,” remarks Caity Sackeroff. “This is a chance for people to lend their voice to an issue and be heard.”
READ: GuluWalk goes global in the Toronto Star
LINK: GuluWalk Halifax