Here's the Story...
In 2001 before the attacks of 9/11, approximately 4,000 Sudanese Lost Boy and Girl refugees arrived in the United States. As victims of genocidal civil war which has raged in Southern Sudan for over twenty years, they have spent the majority of their lives in refugee camps of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda …
As children 3-7 years old, they saw their villages bombed and burned and their families murdered before their eyes. Most were orphaned during the attacks on their villages. They fled on thousand mile treks through the desert seeking refuge. Along the way they were attacked by northern government soldiers and slave catchers.
They hid in the grass from helicopter gunships and were attacked by wild animals in the night. Of 30,000 who began the trek, only 11,000 survived. They spent 14 years of their young lives in the refuge camps of Ethiopia and Kenya where their food ration was one cup of corn meal to last 15 days.
They survived war, endured chronic illness, thirst, starvation, and personal loss that scared their souls but never beat them.
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Now in their early twenties, the Lost Boys and Girls living in the United States embody the hope for their country’s future. Most are attending college while working several jobs to support their family members left in the camps. It is their hope that through their education, they will gain the knowledge and means to rebuild their country and save the lives of their loved ones left behind.
Those who are left behind...
The Lost Boys and Girls left behind many minors are alone in a camp of over 80,000 refugees who have little food and are not allowed to work or raise crops. These children are rationed 1 cup of cornmeal which must last them two weeks and are at extreme risk of starvation, suicide, and can be kidnapped at any time by rebel forces trying to fill their ranks.
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This is where our Boarding School Program steps in and changes lives. For a few hundred dollars a year, the boarding school provides for their safety, nutrition, education, and hope for a future. It will also allow the Lost Boys and Girls here in the United States to focus on their educations, since they currently must work several jobs to support themselves and their loved ones in Sudan.
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