Santino and William

There are prospects for peace at last in Sudan when the government and main rebel signed peace accords in January 2005—ending the civil war in the world which had taken place since 1955 between the largely Muslim, pro-government North and largely non-Muslim rebel South. In 1983, the fighting turned to be genocide when the Attorney General Hassan Abdulah el-Turabi, the leader of Sudan’s Islamic Charter Front persuaded President Nemeiri to apply the Islamic Law and began the systematic destruction of those who disagreed; including two millions of southern Dinka Christians, moderate Muslims, and animists.

William Akoi Mawwin was only six years old by then. His father made him flee to the south to avoid the raids for his safety. He was however caught and endured almost two decades of slavery, starvation, and the threat of death, before escaping and continued to live on the streets and eating out of garbage cans. He lost his hands during those difficult times. Some 30-thousand other boys between the ages of 4 and 10 had the same fate. Those who could avoid being captured were wandering for months across Africa without any clue what to do. It was estimated that only one in three boys survived the journey to the refugee camps in Kenya. Thousands were either shot by pursuing soldiers, drowned, died of hunger, or were eaten by wild animals. Babies were killed; girls were raped, killed or forced into slavery.

In 2001 the United States government agreed to allow 3,600 of them to live in America—the lost boys of Sudan. The largest numbers of these orphans were placed in Arizona; where they have a nonprofit support facility called The AZ Lost Boys Center to provide them with education, employment, heath care—and a home base for them to meet with each others. Most of them have been separated from their families during the war and adopted by American families.

William was one of the lucky 70% of them who could enroll to college and get a full-time job. He even co-directed a documentary feature of his life on “It Takes a Village”, a documentary feature of his life, in hoping that the film will raise awareness and money to help build hospitals and schools in Sudan.

The 19-year old Abraham Maker could also smile after being enrolled to a school where he played soccer and is a runner for the athletics team. “I don’t worry now that if I sleep those people are going to shoot me,” he said.

But getting an education is a big problem for those above 18—which means they were too old for school. Because of their lacking of qualifications, they were often faced with the low-paying jobs.

Santino Majok Chuor, 21, had to go through it. As attending school was not an option, he was loading trucks for minimum wage. He sent most of his salary each month to his disabled brother and his three nephews in Kenya; which left him almost nothing to live in an apartment he shared with another lost boy in Houston.
“There’s no way out unless you get education,” he believed.

Another lost boy, Samuel Garang, 23 could work in the day and learn at night. “America wasn’t paradise and it wasn’t as easy as they told you in the camps,” he said, reciting his previous jobs from becoming a security guard to a bagger at supermarkets. Yet he did well enough in school that he was enrolled at Stanford University in California.

Truly there are more in life than a picture of black and white. Being grateful with what we have is perhaps the best way to cope with our problems. As Samuel said, “Back in Africa, they do not know how hard it can be here for us.”