Each day most of us will take a step as we walk to a job, a friend’s house or out for supper at a favourite restaurant. Walking down the street is nothing compared to walking from Calgary to Edmonton to raise awareness for a crisis in a country thousands of kilometers away for strangers.
However, that is just what 25 college students did April 27 to May 4. They stopped at various locations during the trek including Ponoka Composite High School on May 1 arriving around 5 p.m. to rest and re-energize before they continued on.
The Walk for Darfur group was founded last year and the trek has now become an annual event with two Ponoka Composite High School alumni, brothers Ravi and Rishi Jaipaul. Rishi, 18 year-old, graduated from PCHS last year and led a similar walk from Ponoka to Red Deer. This year he is studying at studying at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton in secondary education. His older brother, Ravi, 21, is also studying there taking nursing.
Ravi is a co-founder of the Walk for Darfur foundation. Their purpose is threefold; the first is awareness and the second is pushing politicians to make a bigger commitment to Darfur. This means supporting the United Nations Mission in Darfur including; sending equipment, training, funding and also appointing a special minister or envoy to Northeast Africa to deal with the situation. The third goal is to support peace talks and work for peace.
Ravi said that his group of friends found out about the situation after watching the documentary called Invisible Children based in Northern Uganda and that it was in the news at the time.
He says that they are all very active in the global scene and thought that this was something that they needed to address.
“We are walking on Hwy 2 to simulate how the refugees walk. It is a symbol of sacrifice for what they do daily. We are trying to make a difference the best that we can in Central Alberta.”
The current crisis in Darfur started with a conflict in early 2003 when hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and killed. In 2006 a peace agreement was signed which did not stop the violence. In the summer of 2007 a United Nations resolution was passed allowing for peacekeepers to enter the region. Since 2003 some estimates report that the death toll is at 250,000 people and the number of displaced people is well over two million people (which is roughly equal to the population of Alberta).
Members of the group spoke at PCHS and Diamond Willow Middle School about the situation in Darfur.
“We told them we have a voice and we can make a difference. Our main goal is that we want to bring awareness to the situation in Darfur,” said Rishi. “A lot of the students were shocked and angry that our government was doing nothing. A lot of them were learning it for the first time. I want to tell everyone that this is happening and it will not stop until we are the voice for those in Darfur. We must think locally and act globally.”
When they arrived in Edmonton on May 4 they concluded their trip with a peaceful rally at the Grant MacEwan campus.
Arthur Romano who dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace spoke at the rally. The group invited politicians to attend the rally but all were either out of town or unable to attend.
Ravi said that they did it for a second year because the situation has gotten worse and that people can make a difference by contacting their local government officials and becoming aware of the situation at www.walkfordarfur.ca.
For both brothers they are determined to walk for those who are lost and those who have so little to hold on. They are making a difference with the simple act of walking.
“We are trying to raise awareness because we are so privileged. These people have nothing. They have lost everything, they have no food and crime, rape and murder are running through their camps,” said Rishi. “People are dying as we speak. It’s mind blowing that it can happen while we are sitting here in Ponoka.”