Instead of being offended, it was precisely the type of reaction the Lester B. Pearson Catholic High School grad was after. He’d explain he was riding from the Pacific Ocean in B.C. back to home in Ottawa, and the reason he was doing it was to inform Canadians about the plight of child soldiers worldwide.
Starting on Aug. 1, Schleihauf will complete the cross-Canada voyage, joined by four two-wheeled companions – Benjamin Gunn-Doerge, Jamie Macdonald, Sandy Macdonald and Matthieu Hallé, another former LBP student who now lives in B.C.
“He’s incredible, really,” Gunn-Doerge says. “It’s amazing that he can travel that far on one wheel.”
Gunn-Doerge, like the others who decided to join up for the second part of the tour, was inspired by Schleihauf’s quest.
The idea for the trip across the country came to Schleihauf after participating in a social justice group at high school that illuminated the realities faced by child soldiers – of whom there are an estimated 250,000 worldwide, concentrated heavily in Africa around the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“It was shocking because I’d never heard of it before,” Schleihauf recalls. “I follow the news, but I’d never, ever heard of that.”
Although the unimaginable hardships experienced by child soldiers rarely graces Canadian newspaper pages, students at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School got a taste of what the crisis was all about last year when a former child soldier who had been removed from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by UNICEF told his story at the Orléans school.
At age 13, he and other friends from his neighbourhood were taken away from their homes and forced to join the army. The youths were then blindfolded, handed AK-47s, and commanded to fire.
When their blindfolds were removed, one of their friends lay dead on the ground in the middle of the circle with bullet holes through him. They were told they were now murderers and that their families wouldn’t accept them back, so they’d have to remain as soldiers.
“It just seems so illogical that it could even be going on,” Schleihauf says. “I try to imagine what it would be like, but I know I can’t even fathom it. I feel very lucky to be where I am and to have the privileges I’ve had.”
Schleihauf expects it will again be a tough physical and mental battle as their group travels 1,800 kilometres to the Atlantic Ocean, but reflecting on who they’re riding for should serve as motivation to keep on going.
“These children are on these war fields, they’ve barely had any sleep and they’re starving and fighting,” Gunn-Doerge notes. “To know that those children have it a lot worse off than we do, that will be what pushes us more than anything.”
Expecting to arrive in St. John’s, Nfld. on Aug. 29, the group plans to ride an average of 80 km per day. They’ll also take “rest days” in all the major cities, holding events to raise awareness and collecting individuals’ red handprints – the international symbol of child soldiers – along the way.
They’ll then send some of the handprints to a local media outlet as well as a larger media source to send the message that people want more coverage about child soldiers.
“That’s one of the things I have the hardest time with,” explains Schleihauf, now a Queen’s University electrical engineering student. “There’s many wars going on right now. This is just as much a war as Iraq, but they don’t get any coverage. There’s kids carrying guns, going out and dying, getting raped and murdered.
“In Canada we can get up on our bikes and unicycles and do a fun little trip – all of a sudden, the media’s interested.
“I have a hard time with that because I feel like we’re less deserving, but if this is what it takes to kind of kick-start people’s interest in it, then I think there’s going to start being a demand, and maybe the media will start reporting more often.”
The group hopes that the more people they’re able to spread the word to, the more will clamour for action to solve the crisis – and with Canada’s position internationally, they hope that could lead to real change.
“While the problem is over in Africa, I think part of the problem is here in Canada because people just don’t know about it,” Schleihauf adds. “Hopefully we can get more people engaged and thinking about it.”
For individuals who aren’t able to meet the group during their trip but wish to contribute their handprint, they can send them to Schleihauf’s home (2176 Hamelin Cr., Ottawa, Ont., K1J 6L1)
For more information, visit their web site at www.childsoldiercycle.ca or follow their journey through Facebook.com/childsoldiercycle and Twitter/childsoldiercyc as well as their youtube feed.
THE PLAN
• Start: Parliament Hill, Aug. 1
• Finish: St. John’s, Nfld., Aug. 29
• Distance: will cover average of 80 km per riding day to complete 1,800 km trek • Accommodations: church basements, community centres arranged with help of Laurier Avenue’s St. Joseph Parish (church attended by five riders) – hope to camp as little as possible
• Schleihauf’s unicycle: 36” diametre wheel (much bigger than circus unicycle), single gear acts as good pacer at 20 km/h, short crank for added speed and handlebar
• Training: group has done numerous day trips to Gatineau Park, other parts of city
• Support: riders’ parents will take shifts driving small supplies vehicle alongside
