Lost Boys Rebuilding Southern Sudan
By: Teagan Ditsworth
Comparable to countless other Sudanese boys, you are tending to your family’s
cattle. You began this job when you were only five years old. Now you are seven. You revel
in your village life, but the world as you know it is about to change. The Janjaweed swarm
through your village burning homes and killing villagers. You return to your village and not a
single living person is in sight. You walk to your home, only to find it burnt to the ground. You
walk to the outskirts of your village and run into a few other boys. You conclude that it is not
safe to stay. You start to walk with no destination in mind. As your group of a few boys walk,
you run in to other lost boys, ages 5 to 15. You continue walking as the amount of boys
grows to a mighty 100 boys. As the days raged on, there were tens of thousands of boys.
You and the other boys decide to walk east, away from the attackers. You are starving,
dehydrated, and walk hundreds of miles without any shoes. You travel at night, sleeping
under trees during the day. Between armies of attackers and ferocious animals, you are
traumatized. Through all of this, onward you walk. You, unlike a myriad of others, are one
of the 27,000 who survive the journey and land in an Ethiopian refugee camp. Even there,
you face hunger, dehydration, as well as disease. After some time there, you are not safe.
You are being shot at and are forced to leave the Ethiopian refugee camp. The only way out is through a treacherous river
with raging currents filled with crocodiles. 5,000 boys do not survive the attack. You are forced to cut back through southern
Sudan to reach a refugee camp in Kenya called Kakuma Refugee Camp. There, your life is miserable. You often go days
without eating. You are not able to hunt your own food. As the years dragged on, your hopes shrank. You are a young man
in the year 1999 when the United States of America allow lost boys to relocate to the U.S. You are one of the 3,000 boys to
come to the U.S.A. You are finally safe. You dream of educating southern Sudanese. You meet monthly to discuss the
importance of education in southern Sudan. You are part of an organization called Lost Boys Rebuilding South Sudan. You
are Arkangelo, a South Sudanese lost boy.
The History of Sudan
Long ago, North Sudan and South Sudan were two separate countries. Although they shared a name, North Sudan
and South Sudan were very contradistinctive. North Sudan was very similar to Egypt. On the other hand, South Sudan was
make up by tribes. The two countries got along in peace until the year 1886 when the British colonized the two nations into
one whole area called Sudan in order to utilize all of the natural resources in that region. In 1994 the colonization via Britain
ended, but they left it as one big country called Sudan instead of reestablishing the North Sudan/South Sudan border. The
northern part of Sudan is far different that the southern part. The northern part developed, building hospitals, schools, roads,
and universities. They practiced the Islamic religion. South Sudan did not develop and continued to worship Christianity and
other religions. North Sudan has clean water and electricity. South Sudan has mud huts and women walking all day to carry
water from contaminated rivers to boil for their families to make it safe to drink. In 1885 the Sudanese government
established a Sharia Law, stating that everyone had to worship the Islam religion by law when the southern Sudanese
refused, a religious war began. The military of northern Sudan swept in to kill all non-Muslims.
Literacy At The Well
A phenomenal man by the name of Ark Angelo visits Wredling Middle School 6th graders every year. This year was
the 10th anniversary. He comes to elucidate his story as a southern Sudan lost boy and to inform Wredling students about
a program called “Literacy at the Well”. The Literacy at the Well program was designed to improve South Sudan’s literacy
rate. This program works by raising money to build a clean water well in a village. South Sudanese women and girls wait
for hours in line every day for water to bring to their families. Literacy at the Well takes this wait time and turns it into learning
time! Sudanese are being trained to teach English to women and girls at the well. They then bring the lessons back to their
village!
Wredling’s Contributions
In the past, Wredling has raised enough money to build a well in two villages; Malualkon and Kangdeer. Kangdeer
is Arkangelo’s home village. Safe, clean, water is now in the village, as well as reading and writing at the well site. The
current South Sudan literacy rate is only 10% for women and 30% for men. Morosely, it is the lowest in the world. With
Wredling’s contributions, we will rebuild South Sudan! If you are passionate in benefiting and learning about the Lost Boys
Rebuilding South Sudan program, visit www.rebuildingsouthernsudan.org.