LOST BOYS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol, two of the authors of Courageous Journey, have plans to make a difference in this world, using their experiences and expertise. Through their new non-profit organization, Lost Boys Face Foundation, they are working toward creating a Multi-Purpose
Ayuel Deng Leek
Center for the disabled in Southern Sudan. Here’s the plan:
LBFF Initial Project:
Multi-Purpose Vocational Center to be located in Southern Sudan
Beny Ngor Chol
Concept: A Multi-Purpose Vocational Center will be built to host a variety of activities to benefit disabled men, women and children. These individuals will be trained in marketable skills, such as carpentry, masonry, weaving, clothing manufacture, metal work, tanning and leather work, growing vegetables and preparation of food, basic medical skills for helping to run a medical clinic for minor illnesses and first aid.
All these products will be sold to the local community. The profit will be shared between the disabled producer and the Center. In time, the Center will become self-supporting and the disabled self-reliant.
Classes will also be taught to both the disabled and the community at large on such topics as sanitation, sign language for the deaf, family planning and prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases.
Special chair made by Beny's staff for handicapped child
The need: Sudan is a war-torn country with a 2008 population of 39,445,000, over 40% under the age of 15. The long civil war between the North (Arabic Muslim) and the South (Black Christian and Animist) took two million lives and displaced four million people, many of whom still live in refugee camps outside the country. According to Dr. John Garang, head of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and Vice-President of Sudan after the Peace Agreement in 2005 (until his untimely death shortly thereafter), estimated that 39.2% of the people of Sudan are disabled, most from war injuries and mutilation by having hands or legs cut off.
Expertise to make the project a reality: Beny Chol, Executive Director of LBFF, served as Manager of the Community-Based Rehabilitation Program in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, beginning at age 18. As a Lost Boy himself, he worked under the direction of the International Rescue Committee and had 120 paid staff under him. In addition, 595 volunteers formed the Community Based Rehabilitation Committee who helped identify, register, and organize the disabled for the program. He supervised the types of programs envisioned for the Multi-Purpose Center.
Ayuel Leek, President of LBFF, also a Lost Boy, worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Kakuma. He was trained in counseling, visiting the sick, and helping children deal with their war traumas through drama.
Both Beny and Ayuel are still in contact with several persons, both disabled and not, who worked in Kakuma and are skillful and willing to make this dream a reality. One such person is Claudio Suleiman, who is disabled himself. He worked with Beny for the International Rescue Committee as one of the counterpart managers in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. He currently lives in Juba, Southern Sudan, where he oversees staff for the World Food Programme as Human Resource Manager. He has agreed to lend his expertise to this project at the ground.
Other Americans, board members and donors, as well as Beny and Ayuel, will periodically make visits to see how the Center is progressing.
Real Possibilities: Beny has just returned from 3 months in Kenya and Sudan. He found land near Juba, virtual capital of Southern Sudan, that would be ideal for the Center—near population and the Nile River. He talked with the Land Commissioner and Land Title Officer about their dream. The city leaders told him if the Foundation could raise enough money to build and staff the Center, they would donate the land!! This is a miracle in itself, making the project an obtainable goal for the near future, bringing hope to hundreds of disabled children and adults in this region.
To be part of making this dream a reality, mail your tax-deductible 501 (c) (3) check, made out to Lost Boys Face Foundation to:
Mr. Beny Ngor Chol, Executive Director
Lost Boys Face Foundation
Proposed site for Multi-Purpose Center near Juba, Sudan
3653 N. Cleveland Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64117
Thank you!
The LBFF Board
Beny Ngor Chol, Executive Director
Ayuel Leek Deng, President
Zach Amal, Treasurer
Samuel Malek
Simon Majak
