Gulu Walk 2006

(London children who came out for this year’s Gulu Walk).

Tens of thousands of people participated in this years Gulu Walk, from New York City To London, and other cities around the world. Gulu Walk is a global march held each year to highlight the suffering of children caught in Uganda’s 20-year civil war.

“It has been a success compared to last year’s,” said Juliet Kilpin the organizer of London Gulu Walk. “People were positive and many have been stopping to accept the flyers.”

A Ben Television journalist, Ayoub Mzee could not resist the tears—children here in London who saw footage of film captured from Uganda also wept. “All along I had been thinking that those were just stories but I have now understood,” said Ayoub Mzee,  Ben Television crewmember.

In New York City, a huge crowd assembled from a march at Washington Square part, with Police escort and headed to the United Nations headquarters in Mid-town to deliver the message that “enough is enough” reports Milton Allimadi, publisher of The Black Star News, who joined the March.

New York speakers included Grace Akallo, a former child soldier who now attends college in the U.S., China Keitetsi, author and former child soldier now living in Denmark, and Judith Abe, activist. “The key thing is that the conspiracy of silence has now been broken,” notes Allimadi. “The suffering of Uganda’s children has been exposed—children allover the world are helping to end genocide in Uganda.”

In New York, Gulu Walk was coordinated by Unight. 

Miwambo reports for The Black Star News from London.