September 26, 2005 Source: University of Toronto:
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/050926-1679.asp Walking the walk U of T staffers Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward raise awareness of Ugandan children's plight
Sep 26/05
by Elaine Smith (about) (email) Ten years ago, if you't told Adrian Bradbury that he would be pouring his spare time and energy into raising awareness about the plight of children in northern Uganda, he might have wondered what you'd been drinking. Today, however, Bradbury has become one of Canada's strongest advocates for the youngsters of this war-torn region. Having children of his own awakened a deep desire in him to make life better for children everywhere. "Once I had kids, in the last five years, I began to be affected by things I read and issues around kids," says Bradbury, U of T's sports information co-ordinator and father of two young sons. Two years ago, Bradbury founded a charity called Athletes for Africa, a not-for-profit organization that aims to use sports as a vehicle to raise money for sustainable development programs in Africa. "I volunteered for War Child Canada and I wanted to do more," he says. "Sport does a very good job at engaging communities but it hasn't done well internationally, although it has the profile and the audience to do so. Music and art have done it and sport has the same sort of profile, so it certainly could." He hopes athletes will be more inclined to lend a hand as Athletes for Africa gains prominence. Bradbury and Kieran Hayward, his colleague at the Faculty of Physical Education and Health, have raised the organization's profile recently with their much-publicized Guluwalks. Each night during the month of July, the pair emulated the nightly walk made by hundreds of youngsters in northern Uganda as a way of evading kidnapping by rebe forces seeking to populate their army. Parents send these children from their rural villages each evening to sleep in larger towns patrolled by Ugandan government soldiers. They reach shelter, get a bit of sleep, wake and walk the same distance back home to attend school. Bradbury and Hayward left the Victoria Park subway station nightly, walked 12.5 kilometres to Nathan Phillips Square, caught a few hours of sleep and walked home in time to shower, change and head to work. Numerous media outlets covered the walks and many others walkers joined in to show solidarity, including members of the local Ugandan Acholi community. "We certainly have a better understanding of the resilience and strength these kids must have to continue to do this," Bradbury says. "They don't have a childhood, all they do is walk. "I'm amazed at the hope they have to continue walking, when it would be easier to give up and say the war will never end." Bradbury first learned of the young Ugandans' plight while researching African initiatives worthy of support. "It kept topping the lists as the most ignored humanitarian disaster but nobody did anything about it," he says. "We're trying to get momentum." Momentum shouldn't be a problem during the next few months. Bradbury is organizing a Global Guluwalk Day, planned for Oct. 22, with walks scheduled in 25 cities worldwide (see href="http://www.guluwalk.com"> www.guluwalk.com for details). In December, he and Hayward will make their first visit to Uganda to join children for some of their nightly walks. "There is a documentary film crew that has been following our walks, so we'll be going with them to walk with the kids," Bradbury says. Bradbury and Hayward are also circulating a petition asking the Canadian government to lend an international voice to the plight of these children. They have even received letters of support from people such as Allan Rock and Lloyd Axworthy. It all adds up to visibility for Athletes for Africa and for the cause the charity has adopted. "What has engaged people is that we're doing something, not just talking," Bradbury says. Indeed, he literally walks the walk.
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