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WESTON - My name is Rebecca Schwenk and I teach sixth-grade reading and writing at Weston Middle School. In April, my class read "Home of the Brave" by Katherine Applegate. The novel is a fictionalized account of a Lost Boy of Sudan and his transition to life here in the U.S. On April 27, Meg Irons ran a story in The Boston Globe ("Now men, lost boys™ search for their families") about Kuol Acuek, a Lost Boy who was hoping to return to his village and find his family. His story could have been taken straight from the novel. Due to the article, my class was moved......read more |
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Now men, 'lost boys' search for their families By Meghan Irons The phone call, made late in the night, lasted only five minutes. But it's all Kuol Acuek has to hold onto. Maybe, just maybe, his younger brother is alive. Though the conversation was cut short because of a bad connection, Acuek believes he had heard the voice of Geu, the toddler he left behind when he and other youths fled their village during Sudan's second civil war in the 1980s. |
"He sounded like me," said Acuek. "That's why I believed."
In the nine years since he was given refugee status in the United States, Acuek has been yearning to find a link to his relatives. Geu's call three years ago gave him a glimmer of hope that they will meet again.
Now Acuek is raising money to return to Sudan to reunite with Geu and perhaps find the rest of his family.
"I don't sleep," said Acuek, who has raised $2,000 so far. "I've been hoping that I'm going to go and meet him."
Acuek is known as one of the "lost boys of Sudan," a name given to thousands of youths who were displaced when Arab and Islamic government forces from the north invaded that African nation's southern villages during the second civil war.
More than 4,000 children, including Acuek, resettled in the United States as refugees.
Today more than 250 such refugees live in the Boston area, and many are searching for or have found their families.
"The reason we were called 'lost boys' is not because we were lost physically or mentally. It's because we lost our families," said Deng Nyuon, a graduate student at Boston College who helped Acuek connect with his brother.
After their arrival in the United States, many of the "lost boys" focused on finishing high school and college - impossible goals in their homeland, said Pam Bartter, a board member of Friends of the Sudanese, a Lincoln-based nonprofit that is helping Acuek raise funds for his trip.
But as they have grown older and finished school, the young men have begun to concentrate on finding their relatives.
That is the case with Acuek, who is preparing to graduate from Lasell College next month. He has seen other refugees return to Sudan to reunite with their families and is eager to do the same.
"I think it's huge for him," Bartter said. "All the Sudanese are kind of brothers to each other. Aside from that, he's essentially alone unless he can locate family back home. . . . This will give him closure and peace of mind."
Bol Riiny, said reuniting with his family last year helped him fill a void. The former "lost boy" traveled to Sudan, where villagers slaughtered cows and goats for a joyous feast in honor of his return. After the war, Riiny's family members had found themselves scattered to refugee camps in different parts of Africa - his brothers in Uganda, his sisters in Ethiopia, his parents in the Congo - and eventually returned to their village in Sudan.
He saw them at the feast for the first time in nearly 20 years.
"When I found out that they were still alive, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to meet them again," Riiny said. "To see all of them, it was a big shock."
Nyuon also reunited with his family members three years ago with the help of a Globe reporter who tracked them down.
Villagers in Anyidi, where Acuek is also from, flocked to Nyuon's family compound to ask questions about the boys they, too, had lost after the war.
After the elders spoke, a tall, soft-spoken young man got his chance. He told Nyuon that he wants to find his brother in the United States whose name is Kuol. Looking at the young man - the ears, the nose, and the face - Nyuon knew he had found Geu.
"Descriptionwise I was not surprised," said Nyuon, a close friend of Acuek. "He resembles Kuol, only he's a little taller."
Nyuon brought Geu to Uganda and arranged for the phone call.
Acuek, 27, last saw his younger brother when they were both children in Anyidi in southern Sudan. The northern soldiers attacked as Acuek was playing in the playground. Acuek ran toward his house but found no one. So he kept running.
He joined up with young boys from other villages, and they spent months wandering in the bush, braving extreme hunger, disease, and even lions. Some died.
They were eventually taken to refugee camps, first in Ethiopia and then in Kenya, where Acuek spent nine years before he was sent to the United States.
Through his ordeal, Acuek never forgot about his family. In Ethiopia he longed for his mother's hushed lullabies, his father's voice, and his baby brother's smiling face.
Now, he thinks about Geu and his family often. He is not certain his parents are alive.
"You have to have your family," he said. "I just want to know who they are. I just want to find them."
An impossible dream
By Ben Aaronson/Staff Writer
Thu Mar 05, 2009 — The Lincoln JournalLincoln - Kuol Acuek does not remember precisely how old he was the day his village in southern Sudan was attacked. What he does remember is the smoke.
“I had seen all the smoke everywhere. I saw all the people running and screaming,” said Acuek, a Sudanese refugee who has lived in Lincoln for the past eight years.
As his village burned at the hands of invaders from the north, a casualty of a brutal civil war, Acuek was forced to run for his life, not knowing if he would ever see his family again. A young boy without a home, he survived against all odds and eventually came to America, where he has thrived. Now, as a young man, he yearns to return to his native land in the hopes of recapturing a piece of the life that was taken from him 17 years ago.
A long walk
After the attack, Acuek joined with others from his tribe, the Dinka, and headed into the bush.
They wandered for weeks with little food, many with no shoes or clothing, and some did not survive. Eventually, he said, the group met up with some soldiers from the south, who escorted them to Ethiopia. There they lived in a refugee camp for about a year.
Still, he held out hope of finding his parents. Whenever southern Sudanese soldiers would come through the camp, he would ask if they knew where his parents were and they would always reply, “Your family is back home,” but in his heart, he did not believe they really knew.
When violence broke out in Ethiopia, the refugees were forced to flee once again.
“But there was nowhere to run to, so we had to run back to Sudan. By that time, it was even more difficult than when we left,” he said of the war-torn country.
The refugees settled in a small area just beyond the Ethiopian border. It was the rainy season but their only shelter was the trees. Food was scarce — most had been left behind at the camp in the haste to escape the violence there. Some risked their lives trying to retrieve the food, but many were caught and killed.
After several months, the northern Sudanese soldiers drove them off and the refugees began another “long walk.” Fearing they would be captured by the pursuing soldiers, the refugees attempted to cross what Acuek called “the seven-day desert” from southern Sudan into Kenya. With no shoes to protect their feet from the scorching sand, they could walk only after the sun had set.
The wanderers may not have survived had it not been for the arrival of the Red Cross, who met them in the desert with water and brought the rest of the way by truck. Once in Kenya, they were placed in the Kakuma refugee camp, where Acuek would spend the next nine years.
Life in Kenya was better than in Ethiopia, he said, but it was still harsh. It was very windy and hot and there was not enough food, he said. The United Nations organized the young refugees into schools, providing them with their first real chance at education, but Acuek had difficulty focusing in school when mere survival was a daily struggle.
For Acuek, soccer provided the only escape.
“When we had nothing to eat or felt angry inside, we would just grab a soccer ball and go and play,” he said. “That’s what helped me to pass all those years in Kenya.”
New beginnings
After nine years at Kakuma, Acuek’s name was called to go to the United States.
“I did not believe it was true until I stepped on the plane in Nairobi,” he said. “Back home, everything is about America. … We just knew that America was a good place to go — you would not see people dying, or hating other people.”
On June 27, 2001, he left Kenya, flying to the Netherlands before arriving in New York, where he would spend his first night in the U.S. The next day, he traveled to Boston where he was placed in an apartment in Roxbury with six other Sudanese, including his friend, Charles, who had lived with him at Kakuma.
After several months, Acuek and Charles and another refugee, Peter, were given the chance to live in Lincoln through a special program offered by local nonprofit, Friends of the Sudanese.
The three began school at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Acuek said he was worried about how he would fit in, looking different than everyone else and speaking the language, but that both students and teachers quickly made him feel welcome.
“It was very exciting. I was happy,” he said. “I was still thinking about my family … but I thought this was the beginning of a better life … so I would just leave the pain of not seeing my family inside of me.”
“When I look at that first year in America, I was changing,” he added. “I was trying to forget.”
Acuek was eager for the chance to play soccer again, but was told he was too old to play. Refusing to give up, he wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) and was given a hearing.
“I explained to them, I love soccer. And I’m not that good, but it’s one of the things that helped me get through,” he said.
He was granted a waiver to join the L-S soccer team and in his first year, he was the second leading scorer as the team won the state championship.
But even more than his exploits on the soccer field, Acuek is proud that he earned his diploma, graduating high school in 2005.
Another milestone came in 2007 when Acuek officially became a U.S. citizen.
“I thought, ‘OK. Now I’m an American. It was just yesterday that I came from Sudan and now I’m an American.’ I never thought it was going to happen,” he said. “It felt like God was rewarding me, making something that was impossible possible.”
This spring, Acuek will achieve another dream when he graduates from college. Majoring in sports management at Lassell College in Newton, he hopes to work in an athletic department or perhaps coach soccer.
Lost and found
But there is still one more dream he hopes to realize, one that he has never let go of — finding his family.
In 2006, a friend traveled back to Sudan where he met Acuek’s younger brother, Geu. The friend brought Geu to Uganda and put him on the phone to talk to his older brother for the first time.
“We just talked,” said Acuek, who does not remember much about the brother he last saw as an infant in their village of Anyidi.
Acuek said he does not believe his parents are still alive, but that he wants badly to visit Geu and find whatever other family he may have in Sudan. For years, he had kept his feelings about his family inside, but now he cannot stop thinking about it, he said.
“It’s hard for me to go to bed. I just lie there, sometimes until four in the morning — everything is just going through my mind,” he said.
As a full-time student, Acuek has not had time for a job and what little money he has earned has gone to support himself. With no savings, he has turned to the community, writing a letter asking for help to send him back to Sudan this summer.
Acuek said he is not sure how much money he will need, beyond paying for the flight, because he does not know what he will find when he gets there. With all the opportunities he has been given, Acuek said he feels a responsibility to help his family have a better life and that he is prepared to give them money for education or even bring them to the U.S. if he can.
“In my heart, I would do anything, if I went back there and found my relatives, to either bring them here or support them there,” he said. “I’ll just go and try to find my brother and see what happens.”
Tax-deductible contributions can be made by writing a check to “Friends of the Sudanese” and sending it to: Friends of the Sudanese, P.O. Box 177, Lincoln, MA 01773, attn: “Send Kuol to Africa.”
Refugee Crisis in Darfur
Help us protect refugees from the conflict in Darfur, Sudan
www.AidDarfur.org
FOS Launches New Sudanese Healthcare Initiative
FOS board member Cathy George with Ajok Bul, daughter of Lincoln
residents Ajueny Galuak and Daniel Bul, Adhieu Achouth, and Ajueny at a screening of FOS’s documentary ”Homecoming in Southern Sudan”
FOS is pleased to announce the implementation of a
new program designed to provide healthcare advocacy
and ensure access to services for all Sudanese living in the greater Boston and MetroWest areas. The program seeks to 1) provide each Sudanese with public or private healthcare insurance if they are not already covered; 2) connect each with a specific primary care physician or healthcare system to ensure access to mental health, dental care and other specialty needs; and 3) to ensure that each Sudanese is treated for parasites according to the CDC guidelines for Sudanese refugees.The new program is spearheaded by FOS volunteer Kim Shellenberger, a professional healthcare advocate with 15 years of experience in non-profits, working to improve access to healthcare by proposing legislation to create new programs and connecting people to existing programs. Kim is currently conducting a broad survey of local Sudanese to determine how many have healthcare related needs. Kim is available to provide advice to mentors working with specific Sudanese on issues relating to health insurance or medical care. Finally, she is compiling a data-base of information relating to specific needs and CDC guidelines for the Sudanese, and programs which are available for refugees and survivors of violence in the Greater Boston and Worcester areas.
While there are health-related programs in place to assist other ethnic refugee groups in the US, there was no program specific to the Sudanese. FOS hopes this new program will function as a model which can be duplicated elsewhere to assist other Sudanese and refugee aid groups across the country.
UMass Graduate
James Atem Accepted into Medical School
Four years after arriving in the United States as a refugee, James Atem graduated from UMass Boston with a pre-med degree in biology. This fall, James began classes at UMass Medical School in Worcester. FOS board member Marj Ropp spent some time with James recently to ask him a little bit about himself and this truly remarkable achievement.
How did you become interested in studying medicine?
It started when I was in high school in the refugee camp. I saw the need for doctors in the camp. There were not enough doctors. There was only one Sudanese doctor and the rest of the doctors were from outside. I was very good in science in high school. I decided then that I wanted to be a doctor.Was there anyone in your childhood who was a doctor or a professional healer?
I was only about 10 when I left Sudan, so I don’t have much memory of medical practices. My father was a farmer. I saw mostly traditional medicine: herbs being used by local people. It was just common knowledge that certain herbs were good for certain things. With malaria, for example, they would get the roots from a particular plant, boil them and make a very bitter tea. When you drank the tea you would vomit, but you’d get better. For certain illnesses, some healers would make a cut on your back or your face or some part of the body, maybe sort of like acupuncture. I don’t remember much about this. I was too young.What was the most difficult thing about coming to the US as a refugee?
I guess it was the strange culture. Everything was so different here. But I’d already lived in two other countries with cultures different from Sudan, so I just took the opportunities that were here and made good use of them.How were you able to achieve so much? —go to college, graduate and apply to medical school in this strange, new culture?
I was very good in science. I could do all the sciences in high school while I was in the refugee camp. By the time I came to the US, I had finished my high school and Margaret Kerr from Worcester State College helped me apply to college. She said I could take the TOEFL exam. I took it and passed, so I could get into UMass Boston. I knew I wanted to be a doctor so I majored in biology and took pre-med courses.I worked at Mass General Hospital while I was going to college. I worked as a secretary, doing transcription, answering the phone, directing visitors. I saw what the medical field was like. When I graduated I worked for Boston Scientific and learned about medical devices that patients use.
What is medical school like?
It’s intense and it’s a lot of work, but I knew that before I started. I talked to a lot of people at the hospital where I worked and I came prepared. These first two years are basic sciences. We get to follow a doctor around and observe. We also work with “standardized patients,” people who simulate certain diseases for teaching purposes. This helps us prepare for our clinical years. Do you know yet what kind of medicine do you want specialize in? It’s pretty early yet. I’ve only been in school three weeks. But I know that I want to practice internal medicine rather than surgery.What are your dreams for Sudan, your country?
There are so many problems now in southern Sudan. So many kids don’t even have schools to go to. They don’t have medical care. I don’t know yet if I can do more to help them by staying here (gathering resources to address their needs) or by going back. I want to help any way I can in the future. When I was young and lived in Sudan, we had no resources, but we had no expectations. People were contented. Now, there is much more awareness of the wider world, a desire for more and a lot of discontentment.As you look back, how have your experiences— fleeing your country, spending time in refugee camps, coming to the US—influenced you?
I’ve coped with a lot. There is nothing I can’t deal with. I take opportunities as they come and I try to make good use of them. I also work hard. When there are things I want, even if I can't have them right away, I know if I work hard now, maybe I can have those things later.
First Annual Think Globally, Ride Locally
Ride/Walk a Huge Success!
Sunday morning, September 30th could not have been a more beautiful day for the first annual FOS Think Globally/Ride Locally Ride/Walk to benefit the Sudanese! Drawing participants of all ages from many of the surrounding communities, the event took bicyclists and walkers along the lovely Assabet River Rail Trail (ARRT). The newly completed ARRT extends through Hudson and Marlboro along the former rail bed of the Marlborough Branch Railroad, which ran from 1850 until 1980. FOS is grateful to Design/Build Geotechnical, LLC and Ergo Editorial Services, Inc., co-sponsors for the event.
College Assistance Program Profile:
Kuol Acuek
Kuol Acuek was one of the first three Sudanese sponsored by FOS in Lincoln. Having graduated from Lincoln- Sudbury Regional High School in 2005, Kuol is now a junior at Lasell College majoring in Sports Management.
Kuol was born in the small village of Anyidi in Southern Sudan. He was separated from his family when he was seven years old." I was out in the fields with the other boys tending the goats and cows and I saw a thick cloud of black smoke rising and covering the sky. I knew there was something very wrong. I left the cattle in the field and ran back to my house and found the village burning and people running in every direction. Soldiers from the north had attacked and set fire. I ran with others from my tribe into the bush. Most of us were very young and we had no shoes or clothes."
Kuol fled with thousands of other boys first into Ethiopia, then back into Sudan and on to Kenya before finding refuge at the UN-sponsored camp at Kakuma where he spent nine difficult years subsisting on a single bowl of cornmeal a day. Throughout this time, soccer was an important part of Kuol's life. "Many times when I felt that I was starving I would come home and get a soccer ball and play with a friend. This made the time go by. It would help me to forget about how I didn't have anything to eat and what would happen tomorrow if I still didn't have anything to eat. Instead of staying in one place and thinking too much about how there is nothing for tomorrow, I would play soccer and this would help me to feel better."
A former star of the L-S Division II state title-winning soccer team, Kuol has been a starting mid-fielder for the Lasell Lasers varsity soccer team for the past 2 seasons. Last year the Lasers won their NCAA Division III conference title.
"My goal is to finish college and get the training that I will need to get a good job and support myself in the future. When I look back to the beginning and compare it, I think I will feel that I have achieved my goal and I will someday be able to advise people who are in a difficult situation. I will advise them that if you are in difficulties, keep hoping and working hard and then, in the future, you will find success."
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Ayuen Deng celebrates his graduation from Worcester State College with a BS in chemistry in June.
The happy graduate was joined by a large group of American friends and Sudanese 'brothers and sisters' at the home of Jim and Janet Wheeler in Stow to honor his achievement.
The next part of Ayuen's dream?
To attend pharmacology school.
FOS extends special thanks to AnnMarie Sivret, a Stow volunteer and outstanding graphic artist for her redesign and upgrade of the Friends of Sudanese website. Visit www.friendsofsudanese.org to see our new look.
A special feature is that tax-free donations may now be made by credit card using PayPal.
FOS volunteers for donating over 3,750 hours over the past year!
Renee Bombredi, Diana Channell, Laureen Debenedetto, Jim Dolan, Pat Mancini, Peggy Mangin-Cross, Chris Morrison, Jody Newman, Kate & Ed Powers, Paul Ropp, Nancy Shepherd, AnnMarie Sivret, Dorothy Sonnichsen, Eileen Sullivan, Jim Wheeler and Embroidery & More for their time and/or gifts-in-kind.
Tyler Kerr and Sam Tobia for organizing a very successful Battle-of-the-Bands, and special thanks to The Minor Chord in Acton for sponsoring the event.
Thanks also to Clark University, MIT; Cathedral Caltholic High School, Springfield; Millis High School; Athol High School, Westford Academy; Dublin School; St. Anne's Church, Lincoln; St. Anselm's Church, Sudbury; UU Church of Stow and Acton; Park Street Baptist Church, Worcester, and Brookhaven, Lexington for hosting FOS Forums and events.
FOS needs your support in order to continue to support these young men and women while they finish college.
- $1,500 one semester @ community college
- $ 500 books for one semester
- $ 300 one college class
- $ 100 one monthy's phone and utility bills
- $ 50 school supplies
Friends of the Sudanese is an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. Administrative costs are less that 3% of expenses. Your contributions directly support those in our program.
Please return your tax-deductible contribution to:
Friends of the Sudanese, P.O. Box 177,
Lincoln, MA 01773
Do you have a car that would be more valuable to you as a tax deduction? Support FOS, get a deduction, and have someone haul your car away—all at the same time! For more information, email us at pam@friendsofsudanese.org.
Our team welcomes volunteers!
If you are interested in being a mentor or have specific skills
or interests that you would like to share, please call
Mary McNerney (781-259-1805) or Heather Souare (978-422-3214).
