GuluWalk 2006 in Vancouver

Today I walked a few kilometres with a few hundred people in Vancouver to raise money for the child night commuters in Northern Uganda. These children walk long distances every night to find a safer place to sleep in the larger towns, away from the very real risk of abduction leading to a life as a child soldier or sex slave with the Lord's Resistance Army.

Thanks to a number of kind donors, I was able to raise $158.

I met up with my friend Kath and a bunch of strangers at UBC at 2pm and we got to Trout Lake Park just after 3pm. There was a big drumming circle which was pretty nifty.










My friend Dennis who, like Kath, went to school with me in England was there:




And, of course, Kath was there:




Dr Erin Baines, a Research Associate at the Liu Institute for Global Issues (where I work, but we've never met) who has done some great work on transitional justice in Northern Uganda (read this for more info), was also at the opening ceremonies and gave a moving speech.






My favourite photo from the day:




I didn't take any photos during the walk itself as we were confined to the sidewalk in a very long, thin procession, which didn't make for very good camera angles.

All in all it was a great day, though very tiring, and I got to meet a bunch of cool new people too!