The following is an excerpt from Inbal's experience with the GuluWalk, more details on this are below or at their website:
www.guluwalk.com--------
Thank you so much for your support for Gulu Walk. Together we raised $1700 for programs in Northern Uganda. I really appreciate your support, and wanted to share with you my experience at the walk.
This weekend I participate in the Gulu Walk, a global effort to raise awareness about the 20 year civil war in Northern Uganda and the heartbreaking effects it has had on children. We also fundraised money for programs helping children there. I had the tremendous honor of walking with Dr. Julian Atim, a medical doctor from Uganda, visiting the USA with an organization called Physicians for Human Rights. Julian is an amazing Ugandan woman. She stayed in school despite the fact that both her parents died of HIV/AIDS. When she was 6 her entire family was displaced from her village in Northern Uganda because of an attack. Now, years later, she has returned to Northern Uganda to work in the hospital, where she is one of few doctors for thousands of people, to treat the victims of this civil war. What really made me think is that Julian almost dropped out of school. When her parents died she could not afford school fee; she was allowed to stay in school because her teacher, a visionary women, realized Julian was too dedicated to her studies and community to be denied this opportunity. Today, Julian is not only a doctor, but also an advocate for human rights around the country, and the sole provider for her 9 siblings, all of whom are attending school. Think of how much the world would have lost if Julian dropped out of school? And all of the children who do not go to school (115 million primary school children worldwide) and all of that lost potential. Too often we think of aid and charity as saving a life from death, preventing a bad situation, and a response to contain crisis. In essence, we see these actions of support, not as good, but simply the opposite of negative. The potential of international compassion is so much greater; it is not only to block the negative, but to empower a chain of positive events. There is so much potential in everyone around the world, and compassion can not just save lives but enable living, not only prevent bad situations but create positive ones, and eliminate crisis through its replacement with positive social change. It sounds idealistic, and sure it is, but this idealism coupled with intelligent action, can create change. Dr. Atim has made a difference in Uganda, and there are millions more like her that hold tremendous hope and potential for the future.
You are a reason for hope in Northern Uganda, so THANK YOU!
And that's my story for today.
Take care,
