Monday, August 08, 2011
"My legs are very stressed but the way I see it, we are suffering, yes, but it is nothing like they are suffering back home," said Yasmin Said, a member of the fundraising group Step Up for Somalia. A few group members couldn't eat during the day because they were fasting for Ramadan.
Said and her six cousins live in Calgary but have roots in Somalia, a drought-stricken East African nation in the midst of a famine that has about 12 million people in danger of starvation. Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died, and many more have fled Somalia for refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya.
Said, 23, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, and moved to Canada in 1993 when she was five.
"We wanted to do something that would honour the Somalis that are walking everyday," she said. "It's so devastating that people are walking for miles and have no food or water."
By Sunday afternoon, the group had raised $15,245, exceeding their original goal of $10,000. The federal government will match all donations. All proceeds go to Oxfam, a charity that provides support to struggling African nations.
"I'm so thrilled. I can't believe we were able to do this is less than three weeks," Said said.
During the four-day trip, the group made stops in Airdrie, Red Deer, Leduc, and finished in Edmonton.
The group was greeted Sunday afternoon at the Welcome to Edmonton sign on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway by members of a group called Somali Youth Drought Relief Edmonton, a local group advocating for Somali support.
"I was just so moved by what these young people have achieved," youth group volunteer, Guled Hussein said. "They walked all the way here, the least we could do is come out for them."
Later Sunday, the group was to travel by car to an event at the Legislature grounds featuring Somali poets, singers, drummers and guitarists.
They also planned to stop in at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and address the crowd to help raise awareness for the cause.
The Calgary crew plans to spend a few days in Edmonton before heading home.
The walkers had help from community members along the way. Best Western sponsored hotel rooms for a few nights, and a Red Deer woman offered up her home and took the group out for dinner.