“The attention that GuluWalk received isn’t about us, it’s about the kids,” said Adrian Bradbury in a recent email. He may be good at dodging the spotlight most of the time, but just this once he is going to be the centre of attention.
Bradbury, U of T’s sports information coordinator, has been bringing the plight of many Africans to the attention of the Toronto community since 2004. At that time he founded Athletes for Africa, a charitable organization that is “Canada’s only athlete-driven organization dedicated to making a difference in Africa’s most under-developed regions,” according to a statement on its website.
In summer, 2005 Bradbury was able to take his work to the next level. Last July he and friend Kieran Hayward began their now-famous GuluWalks in support of Ugandan children who must walk over 12km every night to avoid being kidnapped by bandits. A GuluWalk involves walking 12.5km in a show of solidarity with, and to raise awareness of, the children who must perform this trek every night.
Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been terrorizing citizens in Uganda since 1989 in an attempt to force current Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni to resign. The LRA has kidnapped over 10,000 children-many from Gulu region-during the fighting, most of them forced on the threat of death to fight on the side of their captors.
GuluWalks were introduced to inform the world that these horrific events were unfolding.
Little did Bradbury know that these marches would quickly grab the attention of media outlets the world over.
“I thought that our ‘stunt’ would get some attention in Toronto and perhaps across the country, but I genuinely had no idea that it would go global,” said Bradbury. “But that says less about us and so much more about how many people believe that the conflict in northern Uganda is a priority. These kids deserve peace today!”
War raged in northern Uganda for over 19 years without generating outrage or significant calls for help until Bradbury and Hayward brought GuluWalk to the people of Toronto.
“We were simply tired of reading about northern Uganda being one of the most ignored humanitarian disasters in the world. And that’s where it seemed to end,” Bradbury explained. “It was like some bizarre badge of honour for that country.”
“These kids are our kids. It’s clichéd, but it’s the truth,” continued the information coordinator. “If this was happening in my neighbourhood, no one would ask me why. This planet is our neighbourhood; these are our children too.”
Bradbury and Hayward were honoured in the “Heroes” section in Maclean’s magazine last December, and received a 2005 Planet Africa award for their tireless efforts. This recognition rounded out an outstanding year for the “two average Canadians with a flair for the dramatic.”
Now that we know Adrian Bradbury the activist, why don’t we delve deeper into Adrian Bradbury the man?
Bradbury resides in Toronto with his wife Kim and their two sons Isaac and Owen. He said that his family and Hayward’s kin became very close through working together.
“We really became a part of each other’s families through this and my boys treat him [Hayward] like their favourite uncle. Hayward’s nicknames for my children (I-Pod and O-Dog) have now, in fact, stuck.”
Bradbury did his undergrad work at the University of Ottawa, while Hayward is a U of T alumnus. Hayward’s father and his sister Kelly are both U of T employees, and Hayward’s brother Colin is a recent U of T graduate.
His favourite movies include A Beautiful Mind, Field of Dreams, and Zelig, and he enjoys watching The Office and The Daily Show. Elvis Costello and Toronto’s own Lowest of the Low are Adrian’s “all-time favourites” when it comes to grooving to tunes, and credits Douglas Coupland’s Terry as the book that inspired GuluWalk.
Adrian Bradbury recently returned to his media job at U of T and is unsure if there will be any Guluwalks in the future. He is sure that he will not give up his mission to shed light on under-publicized African conflicts, however: “We’re not certain if it will be more GuluWalks, but we will continue to bring attention to the conflict in northern Uganda and we’re staying with it until there’s peace.”
