Former child soldier Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma has finally received an official pardon for deserting the Ugandan army in 1998, and will return to his home country for the first time later this month. While in Uganda, the 28-year-old boxer will visit the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in the north, and see the work that GuluWalk is doing on the ground in the region.

 

Utilizing his boxing profile, Ouma has been a vocal supporter of GuluWalk and its initiatives since day one. In addition to having the GuluWalk logo emblazoned on both his robe and trunks during two major bouts in front of worldwide audiences on HBO last year, ‘The Dream’ also led Philadelphia’s GuluWalk in 2006, one of 82 events in 15 countries worldwide that helped raise over $500,000 for children’s programs in northern Uganda.

 

"I was a child soldier in Uganda and I know what war can do to a child,” said Ouma, who is from the village of Busia, which lies on the Kenyan border in southeastern Uganda. “GuluWalk is listening to these kids and being their voice, and I'm proud to be an ambassador for GuluWalk and lend my voice also for these children who have suffered enough."

 

Ouma was kidnapped by the rebel National Resistance Army in 1984 at the tender age of five, along with his entire primary school class. Forced to fight in unspeakable conditions, he spent five years with the NRA - - which was led by current Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni - - before being reunited with his family in 1989.

 

It has now been nine years since Ouma entered the United States on an amateur boxing visa in 1998. Finally, after years of lobbying back home and in the US Congress, he has been granted his pardon to return to the country he fled almost a decade ago.

 

"Uganda has always been in my heart,” said the former light middleweight world champion. “That is why I always wave the Ugandan flag proudly when I have big fights."

 

Last week it was announced that GuluWalk Day 2007 will take place on Saturday, October 20 in over 100 cities worldwide, including such notable sites as Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, London, Rome, Beijing and many more.

 

The grassroots global initiative is focused on raising awareness and funds for education, rehabilitation and youth support programs for the terrorized children of northern Uganda.

 

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About GuluWalk

 

The plight of the children in northern Uganda sparked the idea for GuluWalk, a 31-day night commute in support of these children. Every evening in July of 2005, Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward walked 12.5 kilometers into downtown Toronto to sleep in front of city hall. At sunrise, after about fours hours sleep, they made the trek home. Both men continued to work full-time and attempted to maintain their usual daily routine, to mimic the lifestyle endured by the Acholi children who were forced to flee their homes to avoid abduction by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

 

What started as an attempt by two people to better understand the ordeal of the children of northern Uganda, has now grown into an impassioned worldwide movement for peace. For its success in 2006, GuluWalk was recognized by NonProfit Times -- a New York-based publication -- as one of the ‘World’s Best Fundraisers’ in its year-end review.