A Message from Ngor Kur Mayol

My name is Ngor Kur Mayol from the Sudan, specifically southern Sudan.  I was born in the late 80s in Sudan at the village called Aliap in the Pariang area of Ruweng County in Unity State, and I am one of the 3,800 lost boys of Sudan now living in America. I came to Atlanta, Georgia on June 12, 2001. I was brought by the Lutheran ministry of Georgia as an unaccompanied minor from a refugee camp in Kenya. We were relocated to several cities in the United States and aided by many agencies, churches, and volunteers.

My coming to the United States was not my own power; it was a gift from God for the United States government to bring some of us -- the Lost Boys -- into their land of many opportunities.  Now, I attend college and have made many new friends. Some of these  friends and I have formed Sudan Rowan in order to make a difference in the lives of the people living in remote areas like Aliap village in Southern Sudan.

Before I tell you more about Aliap, let me tell you about my last visit to Sudan.  In the spring of 2006, after living in the U.S for five and a half years, three of us from the same region took a trip to Africa. Simon Juach, Andrew Mayik and I flew to Kampala, Uganda and then headed to Juba, the capital city of Southern Sudan. We went through Khartoum and then to Pariang, the area where all three of us were born. It is also called the oil field of the Western Upper Nile of the Unity State.  Our aim was to assess the area – to see what the situation looked like.  What kind of aid could be applied to help the people of Pariang?  What are their needs?  And who can do it?  Who can make it happen?

The Pariang area is very large and includes 12 sub-clans.  Prior to the civil war, the area included over 100,000 people.  Although the population was severely reduced during the war, an undetermined number of returnees are re-joining the population.  This is what we did not find in Pariang: clean water available for drinking, cooking, and hygiene, sufficient clinics equipped to serve the sick and offer inoculations , and a properly staffed school with the supplies needed to educate the children..  In fact, the whole area of Pariang suffers from three major issues:  water, medical care, and educational needs.  People like me need to set up a way to help these people.  We began searching for a partner in America who can fund us, who can help us create a partnership between the people here in the U.S. and our people back home in Pariang.

Water is scarce in this area – people often walk for many miles in search of a water  source, and when they find it, it is unclean.  It is contaminated with  many types of  parasites, oil, and other impurities that cause sickness, pain, blindness, and often death. Our people often use basic fabric water filters to strain the water, but this is not adequate protection.  Then, as the people fall ill or are injured, they must go to the only clinic in the whole area, where often there is no medicine to give them.   Because Pariang was in the main war zone during the South – North governmental crisis, it was more isolated  from getting those few services offered from the outside. 

School services, too, have suffered.  There has been no school there since the civil war conflict reached there in the late 1980’s. Before that the people living in town were Arab.  Therefore, the two school buildings in town did not allow the people outside from the SPLA/SPLM side to put their children in school.  That meant great difficulty for our people before the peace agreement was signed .  Now the Arab administration is gone and SPLA will have the responsibility.  There are now only 3 bricks and mortar schools in Pariang Town.  People outside of the town, throughout the Pariang area, are teaching their children under trees or in small huts.

It was my view after our assessment trip that the people of Pariang are in need of very serious short-term help in the form of making projects that can give some awareness of  what we want to do as Children of Pariang who are now here in America.  We needed to find people who could help us set up some ways to raise money for drilling water wells. This would be our first goal, because it would serve all the people of the town and surrounding areas and could be quickly accomplished when funds are available.

Fortunately, in March of 2007, I came in contact with people in Rowan County, North-Carolina, who wanted to take on small manageable projects in south Sudan. With that group, I have been help to create the Sudan Rowan Inc. My privilege, devotion, and commitment to the project was shared by my best Americans Moms who were very helpful of supporting me until the approvable of the 501c3 non-profit organization.

Now let me tell you about our plans for Aliap.  Aliap is a small village about 1 hour south of Pariang Town.  I have been in contact with friends and family there since last visiting Sudan.  In Aliap, some progress has been made. In the past 2 yrs, the government has installed a water system that provides water for the people lived surrounding this village. However, as I found on my trip there in February, 2009, the other problems of education, medical facility are still quite urgent. Sanitation is poor but the availability of water offer promise in that area.