Daily, Acholi children in northern Uganda walk many kilometres into urban centres to escape capture and slavery.

On Saturday, U of T led an international event that has raised awareness about their plight.

Despite the poor weather, over 1,000 people joined the “GuluWalk,” marching 12.5 km into downtown Toronto in the pouring rain.

Ugandan children make this walk each day-and again, each night-to urban centres like Gulu to avoid kidnapping by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-a group that has been at war for the past 19 years with the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces. Kidnapped male children are forced to become soldiers; females become servants or sex slaves.

The GuluWalk was started by Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward. Bradbury is the founder of Athletes for Africa, a group dedicated to fighting African poverty, and also works for U of T’s Faculty of Physical Education and Health. U of T graduate Hayward also works with Athletes for Africa, and helps coordinate summer camps at U of T.

They began the GuluWalk by walking those 12.5 km into downtown Toronto, every day, for the entire month of July. They would sleep for about four hours, head home at daybreak and try to maintain their regular routines-including full-time work, in an endeavour to repeat the ordeal of the northern Ugandan youth fleeing the LRA.

The GuluWalk gained international attention, leading to Saturday’s global GuluWalk Day a mere month after the original walk. Perth, Australia; Austin, Texas; and Beijing, China were merely a few of the 45 cities scheduled to participate. The Toronto walk began at Lawrence Station, went southbound on Yonge Street to King Street and west on King Street to Metro Hall Square.

“It’s way better than we expected in this weather,” said Bradbury regarding the turnout. “We certainly hoped to have two, three thousand people out [in good weather], but to have over a thousand in a downpour for the entire two and a half hour walk was phenomenal, way beyond expectation.”

The Toronto GuluWalk concluded with speeches and performances from local, and not-so-local, talent.

Notable speakers included Bishop Ochola, a Ugandan who praised participants for their efforts and urged them to continue their involvement.

“I want to thank the organizers, the Ugandans in the diaspora, and I want to thank the Canadian people for this wonderful solidarity of love that you have shown to our children who are suffering at home,” Bishop Ochola said.

Dr. Gerald Caplan, founder of Remembering Rwanda: The Rwanda Genocide 10th Anniversary Memorial Project, also shared words with walkers.

“Somebody once spoke to Bill Clinton’s National Security Advisor and said, ‘How come you let 800,000 people die in Rwanda? How come you refused General Dallaire’s request for more troops? How come you refused under any circumstance to help Rwanda? And this fellow whose name was Tony Lake said, ‘The phones didn’t ring.’ What that meant was, there was no public movement,” said Dr. Caplan.

Both speakers drew parallels with the Rwandan genoicide that shocked the globe.

“When you look at the government of Canada, they have let terrible atrocities happen because the phone never rang. And what Adrian and Kieran did today, was make sure that across the world…the phones of politicians are gonna ring off the hook in the next week…and that’s your next job, today was only the first stage,” said Dr. Caplan.

The Toronto GuluWalk also concluded with musical performances by Belladonna and the Awakening and Antonio Cayonne, co-founder of Project: Humanity.

For more information about the GuluWalk and how to get involved, please visit www.GuluWalk.com.