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For Immediate Release
September 6, 2006
STEVE NASH IS A REASON FOR HOPE IN NORTHERN UGANDA - - ARE YOU?
Two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) most valuable
player Steve Nash has signed up in support of GuluWalk 2006 and is now
one of the 10,000 reasons for hope in northern Uganda.
GuluWalk 2006 is a one-day worldwide event, focused on raising
awareness, support and a push for peace for the abandoned children of
northern Uganda.
“As soon as I heard about the night
commuters, I knew I wanted to help,” said Nash, a native of Victoria,
British Columbia who plays for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.
“Margaret Mead is quoted as saying ‘never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed citizens can change the world;’ GuluWalk is a
small, thoughtful, committed Canadian organization working to effect
change in Uganda, but also in the way we look at children everywhere,”
continued Nash. “These kids are far away, but they are no less
children, and their lives are being ruined by a silent war. Children
all over the world deserve the attention and voice of everyone anywhere
in a position to do anything. Join GuluWalk. Be one more reason for
hope.”
Steve Nash was born in Johannesburg, South Africa,
but grew up playing basketball in Canada. He represented Canada at the
2000 Sydney Olympics, and the 32-year-old All-Star will be entering his
11th NBA season in 2006.
Nash and the Steve Nash Foundation
are one of the first 10,000 to become a message of hope this year, and
the concept is simple:
Get 10,000 people to each raise $100 and walk on Saturday, October 21, GuluWalk Day.
The math is pretty simple, too: 10,000 people x $100 = $1,000,000.
That’s $1 million to provide education, rehabilitation and youth
support programs for the children of war-torn northern Uganda. If you
sign up and raise your $100 before October 1, you will not only receive
a free GuluWalk t-shirt, but you will also be featured on the main page
of GuluWalk.com.
Join Steve Nash and the Steve Nash
Foundation, and be part of this unique awareness event and innovative
online fundraising initiative for a generation of children who are
being left behind.
Steve Nash is number 55. What number are you?
GuluWalk 2006
Last year, in the inaugural global GuluWalk, over 15,000 people in 38
cities around the world walked in solidarity with the children of
northern Uganda. The 2005 event was about telling the story of these
courageous children; it turned into a fundraising event that collected
over $40,000 to support youth programs in the night commuter shelters
and internally displaced persons camps.
However, last year was only the beginning.
GuluWalk 2006, set for Saturday, October 21, will take place in over 75
cities in 15 different countries around the world. From Kampala to
Kansas City to Calgary, there is a GuluWalk near you.
About GuluWalk & Northern Uganda:
Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward first heard the stories of the
‘night commuters’ of northern Uganda In the spring of 2005. They kept
reading these unbelievable accounts of children, as many as 40,000, who
would walk every night from rural villages into the town of Gulu and
other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and to avoid abduction
by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
In the midst of this 20-year
civil war, not only do the children ‘night commute’ in northern Uganda,
but over 1.7-million displaced persons have been forced into abhorrent
conditions in camps where hundreds of people are dying every week
because of a lack of clean water, food and medical care. These camps
are a horrifically inadequate protection strategy, and the only answer
for the Acholi of northern Uganda is peace.
The plight of
these children sparked the idea for GuluWalk, a 31-day ‘night commute’
in support of these courageous kids. Every evening in July of 2005,
Bradbury and Hayward walked 12.5 km into downtown Toronto to sleep in
front of city hall. After about fours hours sleep they made the trek
home at sunrise, all while continuing to work full-time and attempting
to maintain their usual daily routine.
GuluWalk started in
2005 as an attempt by two Canadians to better understand the ordeal of
the ‘night commuters’ of northern Uganda. It has now grown into an
urgent, impassioned worldwide movement for peace and a fundraising
effort for a generation of children being left behind.
GuluWalk
2006 is an international campaign of Athletes for Africa and is
coordinated in the United States in partnership with the Africa Faith
and Justice Network.
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For more information visit www.guluwalk.com or please contact:
Adrian Bradbury, Founder & Executive Director
Athletes for Africa / GuluWalk
T: 416.668.1553
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