索马里海盗.doc

Group Walks in Canada for Somalia Famine
Photo: AP
Children from southern Somalia get cooked food at a local NGO's compound in Mogadishu, Somalia, , 2011.
A group of Canadian citizens is walking from Toronto to Ottawa this week to advocate for, and bring awareness to, the humanitarian crisis in Somalia.
Ige Egal, media and communication coordinator for “Walk for Somalia,” said the group hopes to raise one-million dollars for Somalia famine relief.
“Walk for Somalia is an initiative that has been established by the youth here in Toronto. It was established in 2009 and that initial walk was a walk in the city of Toronto to raise awareness about the drought and the situation in Somalia. Now, we are again organizing a walk but, instead of just walking in the city of Toronto, we ‘re taking the walk from the city of Toronto to our nation’s capital, which is Ottawa,” he said.
Aside from the $1,000,000 goal, the group is asking the Canadian government to extend the donation matching period to encourage Canadians to give generously.
“We want to raise $1,000,000 in these eight days and the days that will follow our walk. Now, $1,000,000 might sound like a lot of money, but consider [that] the United Nations has said that it would take two and a half billion to really effectively respond to the famine that is going in the Horn of Africa,” Egal said.
Egal said Canadians