When we first met the organizers of “Footprints for Peace Australia”, we knew that our goal is a similar one. Marcus and KA from Footprints for Peace take three months to travel from the UK through France to Geneva in Switzerland. As the name of the project suggests, the means of transport is “per pedes”, by foot.Their walk will start in the end of April in London and will end in Geneva, covering more than 1500 km in 84 days. Merely a support vehicle is accompanying them.

We interviewed Markus and KA just before leaving for their big trip. Asked why they are marching, they answered walking was a very good method to raise awareness on a grassroots level. Through meeting people personally, it would easily be possible to connect diverse groups with similar goals.

“Think globally, act locally” could be the header for their as well as our project. Our film as well as the Footprint-Hikes are showing what we tend to neglect too easily when switching on the light bulb: That nuclear power is embedded into a global production chain that starts with uranium mining e.g. in Australia (one of the main suppliers of Uranium to the world). Users of nuclear energy e. g. in France (one of the largest nuclear energy user) should know about the consequences of uranium mining for the environment and the people directly affected by it.

Sharing this common goal we agreed very quickly on working together:

The walkers are distributing flyers for our film in French throughout their way. The french Flyer production is currently organised by the German part of the youth project and will be sent to London on April.

We hope that through Footprints for Peace we will be able to reach many French communities where our film will be shwon. France has more than 50 nuclear power plants, drawing around 80% of it’s electricity from nuclear power. The public awareness of the risks of this technology not to say about the risks of uranium mining is tending towards zero.

The Peacewalkers make use of the camera to document their own walking activities and the interaction with local communities on their way. For a copy of their films or more information on the project visit: http://footprintsforpeace.tripod.com