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HOPE FOR ARIANG VILLAGE
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Produced by Dori Smith at WHUS in Storrs, CT
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This week on Sprouts: the journey home of Sudanese Gabriel Bol Deng,
who fled his village of birth, alone as a small boy. We follow his
story through more than twenty years to the moment when he and two
other young Sudanese men realized their dream of returning home to
find out what happened to their families and friends. We interviewed
Gabriel in October when he was visiting Connecticut to try to raise
funds for his project, "Hope for Ariang."
During a civil war in South Sudan that raged during the mid 1980s
through the 1990s tens of thousands of kids ran for their lives as
attackers on horseback razed their villages. Some 3800 of them made
their way to the U.S. and some have just become U.S. citizens.
Upon fleeing his village, Gabriel Bol Deng met up with four other
children and a few adults and the little group traveled deep into the
jungle. Their journey would take them a thousand miles across the
desert and the mighty Nile River to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. A few
years later they would have to run away again as Khartoum sponsored
forces bombed the refugee camp at Dimma. Gabriel Bol Deng, entered
school for the first time at the age of 13.
Today, Bol Deng is committed to helping other children in his home
village of Ariang receive an education. Gabriel will build a school,
he says, after raising about 150,000 in the U.S. and he will return to
his village of Ariang to help with the contruction and setting up of a
first of its kind educational project for South Sudan.
The two other refugees also wishing to help out are: Chris Koor
Garang, of Tucson, who will train nurses, and Garang Mayuol, who will
bring clean water to his village by drilling wells.
The group of young men met with government leaders, yet they represent
just a part of a broader people's movement in the region, which is a
spontaneous grassroots collective of groups formed in response to the
desperate needs existing even today in Darfur and South Sudan.
UN officials negotiating with leaders in the region say these groups
of students, women, and others, are giving them new hope for success
in the region. Officials within the Government of South Sudan also
express hope that they can develop unity between the people of Darfur
and South Sudan, and they say the so-called 'Lost Boys' and 'Lost
Girls' can make a tremendous difference in their country by coming
home to help.
We hear details about Gabriel and the others from journalist and
activist David Morse. He has been documenting their stories in a
series of articles that can be accessed on his website. He received funding from the Nation
Institute's Investigative Fund and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting.
Morse and filmmaker Jen Marlowe accompanied the young men to South
Sudan in May where they received a warm welcome from the village at
Ariang. Marlowe is editing film footage for a new release titled, "Rebuilding Hope for Sudan."
The small group also met with government leaders and Gabriel Bol Deng
had the opportunity to ask questions and we hear a clip of the
Minister of Regional Cooperation for the Government of South Sudan,
Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin responding to a question from Gabriel Bol
Deng during a meeting in Juba. We hear a clip from UN Radio on the
peace talks held in October in Libya.
Some of the audio used in this broadcast was obtained by David Morse
in Ariang Village, South Sudan and Juba.
"Gabriel Bol Deng is one of the most determined men I've ever met",
writes David Morse on his web site. "His dream is to provide
opportunities for education that he never had until, as a refugee, he
entered first grade at the age of thirteen. He is now working on a
Master's degree, but plans to return this winter to establish the
school. He calls his Syracuse-based organization "H.O.P.E. for Ariang"
to distinguish it from other organizations using H.O.P.E. as an
acronym. He has applied for nonprofit 501 (c)3 status". David Morse
This week's Sprouts edition is produced at WHUS in Storrs, CT by Dori
Smith. Music by: the people of South Sudan taped by journalist David
Morse of Connecticut.
Sprouts is a weekly program produced in collaboration with community radio stations and independent producers across the country. We bring
you local radio productions of national interest. The program is offered free of charge to all radio stations. For information, or if you would like to feature your work on Sprouts,
contact Ursula Ruedenberg at ursula@pacifica.org
Total time length: 29:15
Left KU Channel
November 15, 2007, 3PM EST
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