News Articles

• Lost Boys of Sudan Now All Grown Up-By Mark Wineka

• Sudan Rowan, October 8, 2007 By Katie Scarvey

• Jazz for Justice and Peace in Salisbury By Karen Puckett For The Salisbury Post

Lost Boys of Sudan now all grown up

May 22, 2008

Note:  John Madut has changed back to his tribal name, Ngor Kur Mayol since this article was published

By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

Salisbury, NC

One could say the Lost Boys of Sudan are neither lost nor boys any longer.

But their stories — and their efforts to help the homeland whose civil war made them child refugees — will live a long time, thanks to now grown Lost Boys such as John Madut.

Madut, who lives in Atlanta, spoke Friday night to a gathering at St. John's Lutheran Church about his own escape from southern Sudan and his trip back to his home village last year.

A peace signed in 2005 made the journey back to southern Sudan possible. What Madut and two of his fellow Lost Boys discovered on their return to Pariang was a village in desperate need of clean water, medical care and schools.

Madut has decided to focus his efforts on getting water to the village, by raising money to hire the people and equipment necessary to drill new wells.

Karen Puckett, who helped to organize Madut's weekend visit to Salisbury, said the aim in Rowan County will be to create a coalition to tackle manageable projects in Sudan, such as drilling wells for water.

Several people attending Madut's presentation Friday night signed up to be part of that group.

In 2001, the United States awarded refugee status to roughly 3,800 "Lost Boys," a name rescue workers monitoring their flight had given the youth.

The name is based on the fictional Peter Pan characters who as children were cast into a world of adults.

The Lost Boys' story has been the subject of documentaries, books, newspaper articles and television reports. Madut has lived it.

Here's a brief history, as given by one Lost Boys foundation and described by Madut Friday night:

Sudan is a divided country separated primarily by Arab Muslims in the North and black Christian/Animists (tribal traditionalists) in the South.

After the British moved out Sudanese independence was declared in 1956, Northerners gained control of the country and sought to form a united, Islamic Sudan, setting up a conflict with the mostly Christian South.

The North declared a holy jihad against the South, prompting a long civil war. Northern militias would frequently raid and destroy villages in the South, killing people at random.

Many of the surviving women and children were captured and taken as slaves to the North.

Over time, more than 2 million people died, and millions of others were displaced.

Many young boys in southern Sudan spent time away from their villages in cattle camps and would return to find their villages destroyed and families killed or taken captive. Elders often encouraged them to flee rather than risk capture and be forced to become soldiers.

The thousands of "Lost Boys" who were separated from their families walked in large groups for about three months before reaching the safety of Ethiopia. Many of the boys died along the way from starvation, disease or attacks by wild animals, such as lions.

The homeless boys stayed in Ethiopia for about four years before civil war broke out in that country, forcing them to flee again. They walked back toward war-torn Sudan, and again many died on that journey or when they tried to cross the flooded Gilo River.

Some of the boys were swept away by river currents, eaten by crocodiles, attacked by hippos or killed by gunfire.

The survivors hid in the bush of Sudan for about a year-and-a-half before walking to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Rescue workers say the boys who made it to Kenya had walked some 1,000 miles.

The Lost Boys originally left Sudan in 1987 and arrived in Kenya five years later in 1992. They would spend the next nine years in the refugee camp, eating one meal a day.

Then came the large resettlement of Lost Boys — less than 100 girls were included — to cities all across the United States.

Many of the boys, by then young men, had never seen electric lights, utensils, television or even ridden in a vehicle.

North Carolina reportedly has 86 Lost Boys, spread among Charlotte, Greensboro and High Point.

Madut says he is probably 26 or 27 years old. Most of the Lost Boys don't know their ages. They were assigned ages in the United Nations refugee camp, and all were given the same birthdate of Jan. 1.

Madut landed a job within two months of his arrival in Atlanta. Today he lives in an apartment with five other Lost Boys. He has a part-time job as a cashier at a Publix grocery store and is enrolled in Georgia Perimeter College.

Coming to the United States for him, Madut said, "was a gift from God."

When Madut first arrived in Atlanta, he and other Lost Boys were given support for three months from a now defunct Lost Boys foundation and a Lutheran ministries group.

After that, they were pretty much left to fend for themselves — another challenge to survive.

As he spoke and answered questions Friday night, Madut stood in front of a large screen showing the video he had taken on his visit to Pariang last spring.

"The problem of water in that area is a big problem," Madut said. "My dream is to help my country with water projects."

Southern Sudan has a transitional, democratic government but the north is ruled by a Muslim dictator. A vote is scheduled in 2011 to determine whether Sudan should be divided into two countries or be unified.

Madut prays for two separate countries. Otherwise, the attempt to make one Sudan will lead to more civil war and genocide, he said.

"I'm thinking separation is the key," he said.

The government-sponsored militia attacks that destroyed the Lost Boys' families and villages and forced them to flee Sudan is a near carbon copy of the firebombing, raping and plunder of Darfur to the west.

A main difference is that the people of Darfur are mainly Muslim.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed in the Darfur region, and millions have been forced from their homes.

Madut could not find his brother in Sudan last year. His sister-in-law has died. His nephew, a fourth-grader, is attending a boarding school in Uganda.

With the help of Atlanta friends, Madut is paying for the school.

Sudan Rowan

October 8, 2007

By Katie Scarvey  for the Salisbury Post

Salisbury, NC

A local group called Sudan Rowan is trying to raise people's consciousness about suffering in Sudan -- as well as raise money to provide an African village with something most of us take for granted: clean drinking water. The group is currently working to fund new wells in Pariang, a village in south Sudan.

Sudan Rowan, an interfaith coalition working to establish non-profit status, was formed after John Madut, one of the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, spoke at St. John's Lutheran Church in May about how the country has been devastated by civil war. The United Nations estimates that more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes.

Madut, who now lives in Atlanta, talked about his escape as a child from southern Sudan and about his trip back to his home village of Pariang last year -- made possible by a peace treaty signed in 2005.

On his return, Madut realized that his Pariang desperately needed clean water, medical care, and schools. He's since been working on what is perhaps the most pressing need: getting new wells drilled.

"Water is scarce in this area," Madut has written. "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."

On Saturday, Sudan Rowan made preparations for a fundraiser to benefit the Sudan well project. Appropriately enough, their fundraiser is selling water bottles at OctoberTour.

Karen Puckett, who helped organize Madut's trip to Salisbury, says that Sudan Rowan's goal is to hire a Sudan-based rig operator to begin drilling for water in early 2008.

In order to help raise awareness locally of the situation in Sudan, Charlotte photographer David Johnson will speak at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, in the Stanback Room at Rowan Public Library.

Johnson will sign "Voices of Sudan," his recently published book about Sudan, where he lived in a refugee camp of 50,000 people.

Johnson's appearance in Salisbury came about after Catherine Soderberg of Sudan Rowan saw Johnson's book on her daughter's coffee table. Her daughter had heard Johnson speak, and Soderberg got in touch with him through his Web site and eventually invited him to speak in Salisbury.

Johnson is donating all proceeds from books and photos sold at the event to Darfur relief.

A former middle school English teacher, Johnson went to Darfur to document the stories of the Sudanese for Persecution Project and African Leadership.

After he returned, he says he felt a burden to tell a personal story.

"I was a little tired of photographers exploiting Africa," Johnson said.

Many photographers, he said, make money by "sensationalizing a tragic condition."

"All we ever see is little boys with flies over their face, or skeletons. That's all real, but there's a whole other side," he said -- one of dignity, courage, laughter and strength.

The media, he said, was covering the politics and the sheer numbers being killed, but he felt that people were not being connected personally to the people of Darfur and their stories.

"This is the worst place I've ever seen," he says, "with the most tragic conditions that I've seen."

When he returned, Johnson says, he felt like the media was bombarding the public with pop culture gossip about Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears.

Increasingly, it became important to him to give a voice to the Sudanese -- hence the title of his book, "Voices of Sudan."

Johnson's photographs will remain on exhibit during the week following his presentation.

To see more of Johnson's photographs, go to www.silentimages.org.
 

Jazz for Justice and Peace in Salisbury

By Karen Puckett

For The Salisbury Post

Sudan Rowan invites the public to attend Jazz for Justice and Peace at the Looking Glass Artist Collective's Black Box Theatre, on Thursday, Feb. 5, beginning at 6 p.m. The theatre is located at 405 N. Lee St., at the corner of Kerr and Lee streets.

The evening includes Black History Month exhibits by local artists, a presentation by one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, live entertainment by the Joe Robinson Jazz Band, refreshments and a cash wine/beer bar.

Tickets may be purchased at the Literary Bookpost, 119 S. Main St. in Salisbury, or by calling Rowan Blues and Jazz Society at 704-636-2811. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. The evening's proceeds benefit Sudan Rowan and the Rowan Blues and Jazz Society.

Sudan Rowan is an ecumenical/interfaith Rowan County-based coalition that joins hands with Sudanese partners in their efforts to achieve peace and sustainability. The group is sending an entourage to the village of Aliap in Unity State, South Sudan in late February to deliver school supplies.

Sudan Rowan will also finalize plans with village leaders on how to best further the village's current educational initiatives.

Aliap, Unity State is the home of "Lost Boy" John Madut, the inspiration behind the formation of Sudan Rowan. In the late 1980s, Unity State was one of the most severely victimized areas of the mostly Christian and animist South during Sudan's 20-year civil war.

During the war, militants from northern Sudan's corrupt Khartoum government attacked civilians due to conflicts over resources, civil rights, and control of oil supplies in the South.

Boys around 6 to 9 years of age in South Sudanese society are traditionally in charge of tending the cattle outside of their villages in "cattle camps." Many of these boys were working in the cattle camps as they saw their families and villages being attacked. Thousands of boys fled the attacks and ended up in United Nations refugee camps in Kenya.

In 2001 Madut, now in his 20s, was transferred to the United States by the INS along with about 3,800 other Lost Boys in order to build a new life, become educated, and hopefully create an avenue to help rebuild South Sudan.Madut was placed in Atlanta, where he continues to work and attend college.

A Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the Northern Sudanese government and an interim Southern Sudanese government in 2005. Still, basic services such as water, schools and medical facilities are poorly lacking as massive reconstruction efforts must be undertaken to overcome the desolation created by the war. According to the Educational Ministry of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) there are currently no plans to build a school in Unity State.

In March 2006, Madut visited South Sudan to visit his surviving family members.

While there, Madut was devastated to witness the suffering of his people and determined to return to the United States and tell their stories and to create a nonprofit that would find ways to improve infrastructure in the areas of water, education and medical help for Aliap.

As a result, Madut spent a year speaking to community groups in the Atlanta area, but was unable to find anyone to undertake his project there.

In March 2007, St. John's Lutheran Church hosted the film, "The Lost Boys of Sudan." A local youth pastor and advocate for the Lost Boys happened to attend that event and ultimately, Sudan Rowan was developed.

Sudan Rowan is a charitable non-profit under Section 501(c)(3). All donations are tax deductible.

Donations may be sent to: Sudan Rowan, P.O. Box 412, Salisbury, N.C. 28145.

For more information on Sudan Rowan, contact sudanrowan@yahoo.com or visit www.sudanrowan.org.