Imagine leaving your home every night in fear, looking for a safe place to sleep. Imagine after sleeping only a few hours in a cold and strange place, having to make the journey all over again back home.

For years, tens of thousands of children in northern Uganda, an eastern African country, have had to make this trek. Every night they flee their homes for towns, such as Gulu, in order to escape being kidnapped in the middle of the night by a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army. Being caught means the horror of rape, forced slavery, or work as a child soldier.

While a shaky truce has been reached between the government and the rebels, the suffering remains. Over one and a half million Ugandans are internally displaced, living in refugee camps and not yet able to return home. Many kids continue their nightly walk, some because of a continuing fear, others because the war has torn their families apart and they still have no safe place to sleep.

Last year, after hearing about these "night commuters," two Canadian friends decided to do something about it. Every night for a month, Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward walked 12.5 kilometres into downtown Toronto and slept in front of City Hall. After only four hours sleep, they got up and walked back home and continued on with their daily work routine, just like the kids in northern Uganda. This started an international Gulu Walk in October of last year.

"After reading what these children in Uganda have to face every night, I realized that I was lucky to live in such a safe environment," says Gabrielle Starr, 13, who is organizing a Gulu Walk in Langley, British Columbia. She wrote a speech about Uganda's children, winning in a provincial speaking contest. Gabrielle also wrote to her MP, urging him to take action.

What can you do? Here are five ideas:

1. Learn more about the problem and how World Vision is helping. Click here.
2. Read the stories of two former child captives. Click here.
3. Talk about the issue online, in your local paper, or in creative messages and events at school. Spreading the word will make sure the children of northern Uganda are not forgotten.
4. Organize your own Gulu Walk or join one already scheduled. Click here.
5. Read about Doug Currie, an inspiring World Vision volunteer from Nova Scotia who started a similar walk last May. Click here.