On Saturday, 25th October 2008 hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in the annual Gulu Walk, an annual event symbolic of the Acholi children of northern Uganda, who used to walk long distances each night to town centres for safety, during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency (LRA) for over 20 years.
Gulu Walk is an annual event that was initiated on 23rd June 2004 by two young Canadians Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward to raise awareness about the desperate plight of the children, whose rights were extremely abused during the insurgency.
Dignitaries, NGO representatives, adults and children participated in the walk. Over 20 SOS children, mothers and other co-workers, donned in orange Gulu Walk T-shirts, also took part in the event, which started at 8.00am at the Gulu District headquarters with several stopovers at various points. After a 12 km walk, all the walkers finally assembled at Kaunda Ground to listen to motivational speeches at about 11.30 am. They were entertained with traditional dances and served with refreshments. The Chief Walker was Archbishop John Baptist Odama.
This year’s theme “Youth and children in Peaceful homes” rhymed very well with the SOS vision that every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security. The war in northern Uganda is almost over with no physical fighting going on, though the LRA rebels are yet to sign a peace agreement to iron out any fears amongst the local people. However the war experiences will continue to have adverse and long-term effects on the Acholi community.
For instance trauma is most likely to deprive children of love, respect and security if no quick intervention is made. It was therefore an opportune moment to sound it out clearly to the people the need to create peaceful homes for the children to grow up well.
On Saturday, 25th October 2008 hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in the annual Gulu Walk, an annual event symbolic of the Acholi children of northern Uganda, who used to walk long distances each night to town centres for safety, during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency (LRA) for over 20 years.
Gulu Walk is an annual event that was initiated on 23rd June 2004 by two young Canadians Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward to raise awareness about the desperate plight of the children, whose rights were extremely abused during the insurgency.
Dignitaries, NGO representatives, adults and children participated in the walk. Over 20 SOS children, mothers and other co-workers, donned in orange Gulu Walk T-shirts, also took part in the event, which started at 8.00am at the Gulu District headquarters with several stopovers at various points. After a 12 km walk, all the walkers finally assembled at Kaunda Ground to listen to motivational speeches at about 11.30 am. They were entertained with traditional dances and served with refreshments. The Chief Walker was Archbishop John Baptist Odama.
This year’s theme “Youth and children in Peaceful homes” rhymed very well with the SOS vision that every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security. The war in northern Uganda is almost over with no physical fighting going on, though the LRA rebels are yet to sign a peace agreement to iron out any fears amongst the local people. However the war experiences will continue to have adverse and long-term effects on the Acholi community. 
For instance trauma is most likely to deprive children of love, respect and security if no quick intervention is made. It was therefore an opportune moment to sound it out clearly to the people the need to create peaceful homes for the children to grow up well.
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