|
For Immediate Release
September 12, 2006
SARAH McLACHLAN IS A REASON FOR HOPE IN NORTHERN UGANDA - - ARE YOU?
Canadian music legend and three-time Grammy Award winner Sarah
McLachlan has joined GuluWalk as one of the 10,000 reasons for hope in
northern Uganda.
Sarah McLachlan is number 560. What number are you?
GuluWalk is a one-day worldwide event focused on raising awareness,
support and a push for peace for the abandoned children of northern
Uganda.
“I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn about what is happening to
the children of northern Uganda,” said McLachlan. “GuluWalk is shining
a much needed light on the their struggles, offering us all a way to
give hope to the innocent children there. I urge everyone who can, to
please sign up. Together, we can make a difference.”
With over 22 million records sold since the beginning of her recording
career in 1988, McLachlan continues to impact the lives of others
through both her music and philanthropy in projects such as Lilith Fair
and the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach program. Known worldwide for her
emotional ballads, McLachlan is one of today’s most gifted songwriters
and a role model for women everywhere.
Sarah McLachlan is among one of the first of 10,000 people 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.
Join Sarah McLachlan, Steve Nash and GuluWalkers worldwide on Saturday,
October 21, and be part of this unique awareness event and innovative
online fundraising initiative for a generation of children who are
being left behind.
(Note: A link to high-resolution photo of Sarah McLachlan in GuluWalk gear included below.)
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 people 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.
Sarah McLachlan GuluWalk Photo by Jing-Ling Kao:
http://guluwalk.com.ismmedia.com/ISM2//2006/GuluWalk-SarahMcLachlan-PhotoCredit-JingLingKao.jpg
- 30 -
For more information please visit www.guluwalk.com or contact:
Adrian Bradbury, Founder & Executive Director
Athletes for Africa / GuluWalk
T: 416.686.1533
| | 
|