Flashbacks to the anguishing months he spent as a child fleeing across the desert to reach a refugee camp forced into his memory as he anticipated his flight's arrival in Sudan. He had waited 20 years for this day.
After fleeing his home during civil war in southern Sudan as a young boy, it was finally time for Gabriel Bol Deng to return home. Mosquito nets purchased and medical supplies in hand, he and two friends with similar stories would search for family and bring aid to help rebuild hope for their homeland.
Along with Deng, Koor Garang and Garang Mayuol became part of a group of thousands that fled southern Sudan during war and were living without family, later nicknamed "Lost Boys." Their journey home was captured in a documentary, "Rebuilding Hope," screened at Kelley Theater July 8, 2010, as part of U.S. Africa Command's Commander's Speakers and Educational Movie Series that offers command staff a variety of perspectives on issues affecting Africans.
The story of the Lost Boys and millions of others displaced by the second civil war in Sudan can be traced back to conflicts in the 1950s. After its independence in 1956, British colonizers left power predominately in the hands of an elite group of Sudan's northerners. The inequality led rebel southerners to start a war that lasted 17 years.
Sudan's second civil war, largely considered a continuation of the first, followed in 1983 predominately after the president attempted to impose Islamic law on the entire country that has diverse tribal, religious and cultural backgrounds. The war lasted until 2005 when a peace agreement was signed. An estimated 2 million died and more than 4 million southerners were displaced, forever changing the lives of Sudanese people like Deng.
Deng's story began one morning when he heard a gunshot as he was looking after his family's cattle. Unable to return to his village, he fled the area with others, not knowing the status of his parents or if he'd ever see them again. The group travelled for months with no food or water to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and then to Kakuma, Kenya, where he stayed at another camp from 1992 to 2001. Here he met Garang and Mayuol.
Coming to America
The three men lived together at the camp until they applied to go to America as part of the United State's Refugee Resettlement Program that provided a safe haven and critical resources for those in need. Deng, Garang and Mayuol were among about 4,000 Sudanese who moved to the U.S. at that time.
When given the option to apply to go to the United States, Deng realized it was important for him to take the opportunity to receive an education.
"I will get an education and hopefully, in the near future, if peace will come to southern Sudan then I would go back now an educated person," Deng said he thought to himself at the time.
He did just that. Deng, a resident of Syracuse, N.Y, obtained a Bachelor of Arts in math education and philosophy and a Master of Arts in education.
Determined to promote the importance of education around the world and help others, Deng is not only a mathematics tutor at an American high school, he also created a non-governmental organization, "Hope for Ariang," in an effort to fund a school building project in Ariang, Sudan - his native village.
"When I went back that is my own analysis that so many hopes have been shattered because of war. What we are trying to do is rebuild the hope that was at one time broken."
"We absolutely have to provide hope for our children and there's no more basic way to do that than by a school," agreed Jen Marlowe, director of the documentary.
Deng knows the importance of having hope. He went for four months without a food supply or shelter when fleeing to the refugee camp; he had little hope to survive or ever see his family again, yet the hope he was given with an education sustained him until the day he boarded a plane to finally return in search of his family and to rediscover his homeland.
Welcome Home
"I'd been keeping it in my heart that I wanted to go home because you can really be complete when you know what happened to your family - the family that I left behind," Deng said.
Although Deng learned that his parents hadn't survived after he returned home, he was able to meet some surviving family members and said he felt fulfilled because he finally knew the truth.
What surprised him the most wasn't the loss of his parents, but rather the resilience of the people.
"They have suffered so much more than anyone could ever imagine, but they still have that loving heart. In a normal situation, you'd find people so bitter, so angry to the extent they wouldn't even be able to welcome you, but they were able to welcome us and celebrate."
Garang and Mayuol were also welcomed home and connected with their living family members. The three men brought medical supplies, treated mosquito nets and food for their people on their initial homecoming trip. Since then, they've each developed projects to further help south Sudan.
Garang started an organization named "Ubuntu" to provide healthcare and health education and has returned to train nurses at a clinic in Akon, Sudan.
Mayuol raised money to build a system of water pumps to bring clean water to his village of Lang. He and Deng returned to bring six wells in both Lang and Ariang villages.
Deng has continued to receive donations through Hope for Ariang to build a school house in his village. In addition, he has been promoting the documentary to further educate others on the situation in Sudan and foster support.
There are no limits to how people can get involved, said Deng. They can help by making donations toward the men's causes at www.rebuildinghopesudan.org, by purchasing a copy of the Rebuilding Hope documentary, or simply by getting involved in their own community.
"You cannot solve all the problems of human beings,…but if you do one thing, if you touch one soul, then that one soul is going to carry on the mission and that is my hope," said Deng.
U.S. Africa Command shares the same vision as Deng - to help others in carrying on the mission of creating a more secure and stable Africa.
The story of "Rebuilding Hope" presented a unique opportunity for the command to learn about the men's inspirational stories and continue to learn more in-depth about the lives of Africans.
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