The Lost Boys of Sudan

A really incredible organization having to do with the heart breaking issue that is "The Lost Boys of Sudan" was brought to light to me by an owner of a company I recently met, and who I will be doing a future review for. It's called Hope with Sudan and I really hope all of you will take a moment to educate yourselves about the Lost Boys of Sudan as well as this organization.

(taken from Wikipedia) "The Lost Boys of Sudan are more than 27,000 boys who were displaced and/or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005, about 2 million killed). In 2001, about 3800 Lost Boys arrived in the United States, where they are now scattered in about 38 cities.Halted after 9/11 for security reasons, the program restarted in 2004, but peace talks were underway in Sudan, and so other refugee crises in other countries took priority. As of 2006, the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the United States is in Omaha, Nebraska which hosts about 7,000 people. A variety of charities helped bring Sudanese refugees to the United States, such as Catholic Charities. A variety of programs have been done to help and understand these displaced people, everything from reconnecting to their traditional dancing to dental work to replace teeth which had been removed by traditional custom, but whose loss is negative in the USA.
Most of the boys were orphaned or separated from their families when government troops systematically attacked villages in southern Sudan killing many of the inhabitants, most of whom were civilians. The younger boys survived in large numbers because they were away tending herds or were able to escape into the nearby jungles.Orphaned and with no support, they would make epic journeys lasting years across the borders to international relief camps in Ethiopia and Kenya evading thirst, starvation, wild animals, insects, disease, and one of the most bloody wars of the 20th century.Experts say they are the most badly war-traumatized children ever examined.
When villages were attacked, girls were raped, killed, taken as slaves to the north, or became servants or adopted children for other Sudanese families. As a result, relatively few girls made it to the refugee camps."

Hope with Sudan is an organization that offers scholarships to refugee youth in need in Kenya, Uganda and the Silicon Valley. Through this site you can donate to this cause, as well as learn how to become a companion, mentor, tutor, or set up a program to tell the story of The Lost Boys to your community or anyone else who will listen. There are also a few documentaries on this subject such as "And God grew Tired of us" as well as others. So please check out this site and spread the word.

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