NY donors pay to build South Sudan school
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Two war refugees from southern Sudan say they’ve raised more than $50,000 in upstate New York to build a school in their homeland.
Mathon Noi (ma-‘THON Noy) and his cousin, Sebastian Maroundit (ma-ron-‘deet), plan to travel to the village of Mayen-Abun (my-en ah-boon) in January to oversee construction of the school in the central hinterland of newly independent South Sudan.
They were among 3,800 mostly orphaned Lost Boys resettled in the United States beginning in 1995.
They began seeking donations for their Building Minds in Sudan charity in 2010 and expect to soon reach their initial target of $75,000 to erect the school for 600 children.
Another former Lost Boy in Rochester, Salva Dut, has raised nearly $3 million since 2003 to drill 104 deep-water wells in semi-arid South Sudan.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/NY-donors-pay-to-build-South-Sudan-school-2147033.php
NY donors pay to build South Sudan school
Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Two war refugees from southern Sudan have raised more than $50,000 in upstate New York to build a school in their impoverished home village.
“I’m praying that we ‘Lost Boys’ is the U.S. can be the ones to change the lives of people in southern Sudan and … make sure that that country is not failing,” said Sebastian Maroundit, 32, a parking-lot cashier in Rochester.
Maroundit and his cousin, Mathon Noi, plan to travel to the village of Mayen-Abun in the central hinterland in January to oversee construction of a primary school for up to 600 children in one of the world’s poorest regions.
The men were among 3,800 mostly orphaned children displaced during Sudan’s 22-year civil war who were resettled in the United States between 1995 and 2001. A small band of now-grown Lost Boys are returning to newly independent South Sudan with a humanitarian project in tow.
Another former Lost Boy in Rochester, Salva Dut, has drilled 104 deep-water wells since 2005 in the same semiarid province of Bahr el-Ghazal where Maroundit and Noi were forced to flee as children when war swept through in the 1980s.
On their long trek to find safety in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, Noi survived three gunshots in the leg and hand. He and Maroundit, whose father was among village elders who were tortured and killed, landed in upstate New York in 2001.
They began seeking donations for their Building Minds in Sudan charity last fall and expect to soon reach an initial target of $75,000 to erect four classrooms. They’re aiming to raise about $125,000 more to build at least four more classrooms, a library and a kitchen.
The village’s school was bombed long ago and some 500 children now attend classes under the shelter of trees. On a visit home as a volunteer teacher, after he’d arranged for his little brother to go to school in Kenya, Maroundit said another little boy approached him and asked, “What about me? What about us?”
Literacy rates are low in South Sudan, but many people yearn for an education, said Noi, 31, a financial analyst in Buffalo.
“We have what we have because someone helped us,” Noi said. “If we cannot do this, who will do it? We are in the United States, and this country has people with good heart.
“If we build this school, it will change lives. And it will be there for maybe 10, 20, 50 years, and children will come year after year and study there.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP5704780d7041482f827c429c6cc76442.html
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