Sudanese refugee wants ordeal to be remembered

In 1987, when he was nine years old, Gabriel Deng faced death in his native Sudan when his tribal village was invaded, looted and burned, and most of the residents were slaughtered by Muslim militia.

Because he was tending to his family's livestock in a fields, he escaped. He then hid in a tree for two days to avoid being killed by lions. It wasn't until other tribal people came through the area, also fleeing the militia, that he was able to show himself and join them.

Determined that the story of the "lost boys of Sudan" will never be forgotten, he will talk about his extraordinary experience during an appearance in Albany next week.

Lost boys

"We walked for four months," Mr. Deng told The Evangelist from his home in Syracuse. "We crossed the Nile River and the desert. We walked all the way to Ethiopia -- about 1,000 miles."

During the late 1980s, more than 20,000 orphaned boys were forced from their homes in southern Sudan by the civil war between the Muslim north and Christian south. As they fled to Ethiopia and Kenya, more than half of them died along the way.

Gabriel, who was barefoot for the entire trip, still bears deep scars on his legs from severe insect bites. Many of the boys were killed by crocodiles and other wild animals, or starved.

When he arrived at the Ethiopian refugee camp, he suffered from malaria and malnutrition, and recuperated for several weeks in a camp hospital.

Education

Mr. Deng spent four years in refugee camps, first in Ethiopia and then in Kenya. There, he first realized the value of formal education.

"They wanted us to know how to read and write," he recalled. "At 13, I was in the first grade. We had no paper or pencils. We did our lessons on the backs of shovels and wrote with charcoal. I used to save cardboard boxes to write on."

In the late 1990s, Mr. Deng was among 17,000 students chosen by the U.N. for a resettlement program and among 4,000 selected to live in the U.S. He arrived in Syracuse six years ago.

He is currently attending LeMoyne College as a science and math education major. He hopes to teach special education students.

Hope

Mr. Deng founded a non-profit organization -- Hope for Sudan -- to support building schools in his homeland.

"The word 'hope' is an acronym. It stands for 'Helping Offer Primary Education,'" he explained. "My vision is to establish a school near my former village. There is still no education in Sudan. People are just beginning to rebuild the country. I am hoping that building a school there will help in that effort. Without education, people are helpless."

He plans to return to Sudan this year "to search for my family," he said. "I do not know if either of my parents is still alive, but I am going back to look for them."

(Mr. Deng's talk is March 15, 7:30 p.m., at the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary at The College of Saint Rose, Albany. It is free and open to the public.)

(Last year, Mr. Deng was a student-teacher at Onondaga Central School and Syracuse city schools. He was chosen Student-Teacher of the Year by the LeMoyne faculty and staff. He also became a U.S. citizen.)

(3/8/07) [[In-content Ad]]