Why not join us on a journey to remember as we travel the 6,000 miles to Gulu, Uganda? Whether it’s cycling, running or walking, together we can get there and help support the recovery of ex-child soldiers.
Let’s Get to Gulu!
The Summer Lockdown Challenge
This summer, we’re gearing up to travel the 6,000 miles through Europe, The Middle East and North Africa, all the way to Third Hope’s Farm near Gulu, Northern Uganda. Of course, because of Lockdown, it will have to be a virtual journey but this means you can all join us!
All you have to do, over the Summer of 2020, is get out running, cycling or walking. It could be on your own, or with family and friends. Afterwards, just email us the total number of miles covered and we will add them to the running total. Also, feel free to send us any photos of your trip and we will try to incorporate as many as possible into the updates. We will be uploading a weekly update to this page until we reach our 6,000 mile target.
Please send emails to: [email protected].
For every mile you cycle, walk or run, we are hoping you can raise at least £1, so get your family, friends and co-workers sponsoring you by pointing them to the JustGiving page. With each mile we complete, and with every pound we raise, we will get closer to running another year’s training in regenerative agriculture for ex-child soldiers.
If together we can raise £6,000, we will be well on our way to supporting the 40 ex-child soldiers who have signed up to next year’s agricultural course, alongside vocational training and trauma counselling to enable them to leave behind the horror of their past and move towards a hopeful future. So, together, LETS GET TO GULU!
See the JustGiving Page here
To hear two songs from the Requiem, watch the films below.
Will there be a home? Song from the Requiem Watch The Video
How lonely lies – Song from the Requiem Watch The Video
Due to the Coronavirus crisis, the performance of the Requiem, that was due to be performed this summer in Beaconsfield, has been postponed.
Please watch this space for more information when the situation changes.
Thanks.
The Requiem is an hour-long piece of choral music, written specially to remember the suffering and grief of the Acholi people and the tragedy of their abducted children.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Requiem for the Child Soldiers of Northern Uganda, or would consider putting it on in a theatre or church near you, please get in touch via the contact page.
What is a Requiem?
The word ‘requiem’ means rest, and the heart of the sung Requiem is a prayer for those who have departed the world, that they will be granted eternal rest.
Usually, a Requiem will be sung for someone considered important or significant – a king or head of state. This Requiem is sung exclusively for the forgotten, for the powerless and for the unknown. It is dedicated to the child soldiers of northern Uganda.
For over twenty years, northern Uganda was ravaged by civil war. A war that will be forever marked out in history as one in which child-soldiers were brutally and systematically abused.
Many thousands were killed, their bodies never recovered because their families do not have the means to locate them for burial. The wider community is also too poor to help effectively. It is doing what it can to support but with so much need, it is struggling.
This Requiem is a small gesture in the vast sea of need, but it is a gesture nonetheless – a refusal to shut out their pain. And more than that, it is a commitment to share the suffering that is in the heart of the eternal father of us all and to do what we can to show love to those who need it.
We commit to remember these lives – the ones who died and the ones who are alive but still carry the scars of death inside them. This Requiem was written to say to them, “You are not alone”.