Jon Sarpong, diversity officer for Durham College, encourages students to participate in the GuluWalk on Saturday, October 20 to support displaced children in northern Uganda.
Durham College's Students for Humanitarianism and Action through Respect and Education (SHARE) are encouraging students, faculty and staff to participate in GuluWalk, an international initiative that benefits displaced children in Uganda.
On Saturday, October 20, the group will gather at Memorial Park in Oshawa and walk to the Durham College Oshawa campus in support of as many as 40,000 children who walk from their rural villages into the town of Gulu and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and avoid abduction for use in the country's 20-year civil war, according to the GuluWalk official website.
More than 1.7 million people have been displaced, in addition to thousands of night commuters, who have been forced into horrible conditions in camps where hundreds of people die every week due to a lack of clean water, food and medical care.
"I want us to raise as much money as we can because that money has the power to change a child's life," said Jon Sarpong, diversity officer for Durham College.
Twenty-five per cent of all funds raised go to GuluWalk's continuing awareness and education initiatives, which include a commitment to allocate no more than 10 per cent to administrative costs. Seventy-five per cent of the funds go directly to children's programs in northern Uganda.
GuluWalk began with two people who wanted to better understand and raise awareness of the children living in Uganda. Every evening in July 2005, Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward walked 12.5 kilometres into downtown Toronto to sleep in front of City Hall. At sunrise, after four hours of sleep, they made the trek home. Both men continued to work full-time and attempted to maintain their daily routines. Today, more than 80 cities in 15 countries participate in GuluWalk, raising money to change the lives of children in Uganda.
Memorial Park is located on Simcoe Street South between Metcalfe and John streets, east of Centre Street in downtown Oshawa. Buses will leave campus between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. for the trip downtown and the walk will commence at 11 a.m.
To register or for more information, please visit www.guluwalk.com or contact Michael Mior, vice-president of SHARE, at michael.mior@sharecanada.org.