About 50 Binghamton University students participated in Saturday morning’s Gulu walk, an event held to raise money and awareness of the plight of children in northern Uganda. Binghamton’s Gulu walk was one of many events held worldwide on Saturday by charitable organizations seeking to raise a combined goal of $1 million.
The Binghamton Gulu walk was organized by Justice for Children International, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of issues that affect children all over the world. A JFCI branch of this organization was chartered here last semester. The club plans to host several more events this year to help combat sex trafficking, according to the club’s events coordinator Kate Cessnun, a sophomore English major.
Despite the cold weather and early starting time, the event drew more people than expected and club officials were pleased with the turnout. The walk lasted about an hour and a half, with participants walking around the brain three times. Afterwards, JFCI provided refreshments for the participants.
JFCI sold T-shirts to the walk’s participants with a $10 donation. From T-shirt sales and additional online contributions, JFCI was able to raise $1,050 for children’s programs that focus on education, rehabilitation and youth outreach.
The event brought attention to the violent conflict that has been going on in Uganda since the late 1980s between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan Government. The LRA, a paramilitary group led by Joseph Kony, seeks to create an independent state within Uganda and abducts children to join the army.
To date more than 20,000 children, many under the age of 13, have been enslaved since 1987 — and 1.6 million members of the Acholi tribe have been forced to flee their homes and become refugees.
The Gulu walk is so named because the town of Gulu provides a refuge for children of the Acholi tribe who are at risk for abduction. As many as 40,000 children make the journey to Gulu every night to sleep in relative safety and to avoid abduction by the LRA.
Woman in Uganda are also in great danger from the LRA. Many are forced into marriages with death threats and repeatedly raped by LRA officials. Kony himself has 52 wives, along with 25 abducted girls who will become his wives upon reaching puberty.
Over 1 million people have been displaced, and many others commute from their rural villages every night. Many children are forced to sleep in camps whose terrible conditions lead to hundreds of unnecessary deaths from a lack of basic resources.
After the walk, Cessnun thanked those who participated and ended the event with a request: “Keep telling people about the children that are suffering,” she stated. “The more people that know, the sooner it will end.”