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The Lost Boys who Grew Up too Soon…
By Blaise Shaw
Just as there were lost boys in Peter Pan, there are the Lost Boys of Sudan - thousands of boys who fled their homes in that country in 1987. Unfortunately, they did not live the fantasy of never wanting to grow up. They just dreamed of survival. Relief workers named the children the 'Lost Boys' after Peter Pan's lost boys who clung together to avoid a hostile adult world.
Eleven of the Lost Boys, now young men, live at Jubilee Partners, a transitional center in Comer, Georgia. A select few Mars Hill College Bonner scholars went to Georgia in early November to meet these young men and to hear the tales of their lives.
The Lost Boys moved with ease around Jubilee and acted as American as any other person, although they have only been in this country for a little over a month. Many had never seen such basics as a working faucet. They seem to be adjusting well to a very different way of life.
Charming, agile, and friendly, the men quickly had everyone impressed. On the soccer field they played without competitiveness and welcomed even the smallest children to come and join the game.
"As a soccer player, I was amazed at their approach to the game,'' said Bonner scholar Angela Dolezal. "They never got angry at each other, and they just laughed when they messed up.
" This spirit transcends into their everyday life,'' she said. "After facing adversity after adversity, they still have this inner peace and seemingly unexplainable joy that is inspiring to all who meet them.''
The Lost Boys have told their stories many times and have had their words broadcast nationally. The Bonner Scholars were asked by the Partners not to ask about the traumas they had suffered because they were trying to help the boys start a new life and not focus on what they had been through. But the scholars listened to a speaker who had worked with many of the Lost Boys and saw a film from 60 Minutes II.
The film was of Abraham Yel, one of the refugees who has stayed at Jubilee Partners. Abraham's story is remarkable, as all the Boys' stories are, but more so in the fact that through everything he kept with him his worn Bible printed in Dinka. As he told the reporter for 60 Minutes II, "It is my life." He became the teenage Episcopal pastor of hundreds while he was stationed in a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. Abraham is now an Episcopal pastor in Atlanta, Georgia.
In the film he told of the boys, and a scattering of girls, and how they walked from town to town, picking up other children like themselves until there was a movement of 12,000 children trudging over South Sudan. They walked with no food or water, no supplies of any kind, living off of whatever they could find as they made their way to Ethiopia.
For many, the future was short-lived. Trekking hundreds of miles on foot through the hostile East African desert, many children died of starvation, thirst or attack by wild animals. Abraham told how some of the boys watched as their friends were attacked and eaten by lions and other predators of the desert. The children who survived made it to Ethiopia where they found a missionary camp where they stayed for four years.
Then, in 1991, Ethiopia broke out into civil war and the boys were forced at gunpoint to leave. Abraham at this time was eleven years old. They ran from a myriad of bullets until they reached the Guiro River that separated Sudan and Ethiopia. Some of the children could not swim and drowned trying to cross. The soldiers shot others as they tried to flee. The crocodiles that inhabited the waters ate more. The Boys who survived estimate that between 1,000-2,000 children died trying to cross the river that day.
The survivors started again on their long walk across Sudan. They knew there was no safe place for them; they were what are known as "internally displaced people", people who are hiding within their own country. The children, at that time being about ten to 14 years old, crossed Sudan for the second time, this time going to Kenya. They talked about the difficulties they faced and the lengths they would go to for survival. One of them admitted that most of the boys kept mud in their mouths to keep from dying of dehydration.
Finally, the boys reached the borders, where most were placed in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. The boys have spent most of their lives living hand-to-mouth in less than humane conditions. They wait day after day, hoping that their name will be chosen to be one of the fortunate few that will be removed from Kenya and brought to America.
About 4,000 "Lost Boys'' have been allowed to come into the country, but since September 11, no new refugees are being admitted. President Bush has not even signed the presidential decree that would allow any new refugees to enter into the United States, holding back the 70,000 who were supposed to be admitted this year.
According to Jubilee staff members, the Boys strongly believe that education is key to their future success and are hoping that they may be able to go to college someday. The people of Jubilee warned the Bonner scholars not to encourage the boys too heavily because they don't want their dreams to be dashed. It is a very difficult process to get into college and the Boys have nothing but the power of their minds. This is why the Bonners are raising money and taking donations of school supplies to send to the boys. Senior Eva Hartman and Terri Farless, coordinator of student leadership, are accepting donations at the LifeWorks office.
Map of Sudan and surrounding countries
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