GuluWalk for Uganda

By Erica Schiffres
Features Editor

For 150 Bucknellians a Sunday afternoon walk was not just a walk. The students who participated in the weekend’s GuluWalk raised awareness, support and over $1,800 to help the child soldiers of Uganda who have never known peace. 

Though treated to hot cocoa, muffins and a cappella performances by musical groups Two Past Midnight and Voices of Praise, the students gathered outside the KLARC Davis Gymnaisum with a serious aim. 

With crisp air, a brisk pace and a plum, burnt orange and red foliage scenery, it was a perfect day to walk 1.75 miles around campus to Market Street and back. 

In Uganda, “students walk miles to school, those who are fortunate enough to have the opportunity, while parents struggle to put food on the table for their families,” said Muyambi Muyambi ’11, a Ugandan native who helped organize the event. 

“No matter where you are in Uganda, you are bound to have difficulties. In the case of people from Northern Uganda, it’s sad that they haven’t even experienced peace for the last 22 years,” he said.

Co-founders Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward started the original GuluWalk in July 2005. In two years, it has evolved into an international organization with more than $1 million raised. Gulu is the town in Northern Uganda where children in rural villages sought refuge from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel guerilla Christian army.

Muyambi is “praying that Gulu walk becomes a Bucknell tradition and that people continue to support it and join. Last year was the first time and it seems like the cause is spreading like rapid fire.“

There are other ways students can get involved, such as Muyambi’s Bicycles Against Poverty program.

“We will hopefully be having  a bicycle race next semester to raise money to buy bicycles to [give to] the people of Northern Uganda in the internally displaced camps,” Muyambi said. “It’s a sustainable program, so it’s not the usual type of aid that makes people dependant.”

Even A’lisa Moore ’11, coming straight from church in dressy attire, wasn’t going to let sore feet stand in her way; Moore walked barefoot and carried her heels.

“It’s important to come together and show support,” Moore said.