2-19-2007.... I hear the refugee camps are closing. 33 of the orphaned relatives of the Lost Boys here are in boarding schools in Kenya and Uganda thanks to Hampton Roads sponsors. We are concerned about what they will do on breaks since they used to return to the camps. Brainstorming ideas..........

Betsy Egan

10-27-2006 Our Program is in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Please, visit our website http://www.lostboyshr.com

Earlier this week I was contacted to volunteer to join up and help this group with major organization, recruiting and fundraising. So I did.

The three years prior to this I organized a group to assist a family of 6 from former Yugoslavia - we had 50+ volunteers the first year. At the end of year 2, the two eldest children started college as freshmen at VCU in Richmond. There are now about 10 or so active volunteers. The family did not experience the hardship and violence that the Lost Boys have so bravely moved through. The Croatian family told me they are not refugees any more. They do still need assistance but they are increasingly self sufficient.

By contrast there are 107 Lost Boys, Girls & Families in Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The 90 in Newport News lacked a support network. There are 5 very active volunteers. A lack of mentoring both in Africa and here is resulting in what I call "cracks in the structure". The cracks were widening - our Outreach ramp-up goal is to get this situation turned around. This is a fantastic group of individuals. With God's help we can work together to advance them on the road to self-sufficiency and achieving their goals.

The biggest strain is on families: usually there are 4-5 children, both parents work at menial jobs and have difficulty reading and writing English. Financial management is a real stumbling block for navigation through the tricky waters of life in America.............

Financial pitfalls and sending money to protect relatives stranded in Africa is undermining families finances as well as Lost Boy/Girl ability to stay in college.

Here is some background information from Julie Hill, Volunteer Advocate who has been trying singlehandedly at times to meet the Lost Boys needs.

Lost Boys Hampton Roads

In 2001 before the attacks of 9/11, approximately 4,000 Sudanese Lost Boy and Girl refugees arrived in the United States. As victims of genocidal (un)civil war which has raged in Southern Sudan for over twenty years, they have spent the majority of their lives in refugee camps of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Since the ages of 3 to 7, the tides of war have forced them to flee as groups of children through the deserts on thousand mile treks. Most have lost their parents and siblings, having seen them perish or killed before their eyes. They have survived war, thirst, starvation, and personal loss that has scarred their souls but never beat them. Now in their early twenties, the Lost Boys and Girls living in the United States embody the hope for their country’s future. Most are attending college while working several jobs to support their family members left in the camps. It is their hope that through their education, they will gain the knowledge and means to rebuild their country and save the lives of their loved ones left behind.

Background on Sudan’s Genocide

The British invented Sudan. They drew boundaries around nearly a million square miles and more than 300 different tribes in Central Africa, and they declared this area to be one nation. Then they put a Muslim Arab government in control, and left in the 1950s. The Arab government is at work “cleansing” the country of its native population.

The systematic killing began in the south in 1983, where some 2 million native Africans were killed, and 4 million were displaced. In village after village government-supported militia attacked, killing potential rebel soldiers, including all men and boys of every age. The attackers burned the villages, raped and/ or enslaved the girls and women, poisoned water supplies, and bombed their cattle herds, effectively destroying the villagers’ only means of sustenance. Young boys were instructed to run when they heard the invaders’ gunshots. This terror continued from 1983 throughout their time in the refugee camps as the war/genocide raged on.

The Lost Boys of Sudan Who Live in Hampton Roads

As young as three to seven, boys ran out of their burning villages leaving behind their murdered family and friends. They began their walk which would span a thousand miles. Over time, groups of children found each other. Aid workers dubbed the estimated 30,000 children separated from their parents “The Lost Boys.”

Led by “elders” who were often only children themselves, the Lost Boys began their trek to find safety. For three months scattered groups walked through deserts and mountains without shoes, clothing, shelter or food before settling in make-shift refugee camps in Ethiopia. Along the way disease, thirst, hunger, and parasites plagued the young boys. Boys often sucked the mud from dry river beds and even drank their own urine. They were often attacked by soldiers and slave catchers. They hid in the grass to avoid helicopter gunships. Wild animals such as lions and hyenas found the weakened boys easy prey. All endured chronic illness, thirst, starvation, and personal loss beyond what we can imagine. Unfortunately, the relative safety they found in Ethiopia was short lived.

In 1991 the fall of the Soviet Union also led to the fall of Ethiopia’s communist government, which was overthrown by Muslims, who wanted the Lost Boys out of their country. While some boys had notice, most learned about the need to move on from the sounds of guns. With gunshots from Ethiopian soldiers at their back, boys were forced to cross the Gilo River. Many of the boys couldn’t swim, and some were too weak to fight the Gilo’s swift current. Alligators and hippos eagerly ate others. Alerted that the boys were forced back over the border, the Sudanese army awaited the opportunity to ambush the boys. Some say approximately 10,000 to 11,000 lost their lives trying to cross the Gilo River, which the boys remember flowing red.

The remaining 20,000 Lost Boys were forced to re-cross mountains and desert under deplorable conditions as they were chased and fired upon by the Sudanese Army. In 1992 Kenya offered to take in the refugees at Kakuma Refugee Center. Without fresh water or fertile soil, Kakuma remains a dusty, dry, and desolate “no-man’s land.” The UN supplied food, but the rations of one cup of cornmeal for every two weeks left them in a constant state of hunger. Starvation, hunger and disease were rampart among the growing number of refugees, which climbed to over 80,000.

The United States offered to resettle at least 8,000 boys, but the resettlement process was halted as a result of 9/11. Only 3,800 made it over before that date. The rest of the boys and girls slated to come over are still over there waiting with little hope of ever making it.

Currently, we have 17 Lost Boys (including one Lost Girl) in Norfolk and 30 living in Newport News. Between 2002 & 2006 8 families arrived in Newport News(56 more Sudanese). 4 babies have been born. Most are focused on education. They know that a good education can lead to more meaningful jobs and ability to help rebuild their country. Their roles as the future leaders in Sudan will help bring their homeland peace, stability, and a better life for their people.

In addition to the burden of working their way through school, the Lost Boys feel concern and responsibility for supporting their relatives left behind in the refugee camps. They struggle to earn enough funds to support themselves, pay for college and send money to relatives back in Sudan and the refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda. In addition to attending school full time, most Lost Boys work at two or more jobs, which ironically, makes most of them ineligible for college financial aid.

How We Can Help:

1. Assistance for living expenses while they attend college:

A few lucky Lost Boys in Norfolk have benefactors who help them live rent free. By alleviating some of the intense pressure to earn money, free housing allows these young men to drop their second and third jobs and qualify for college financial aide. It also affords them the additional time they need to devote to their class studies and excel as full time students. Yet only a few of the Lost Boys in Hampton Roads have this privilege. One boy in Norfolk lives in an unheated house that is about to be condemned. The Lost Boys in Newport News have received little community support and none have received assistance with housing. This has greatly hindered their efforts to obtain their educations. It has also put them in the impossible dilemma of choosing between their rent, their education, food, and keeping their relatives alive. Some have even gone without heat or electricity in the coldest months of winter, just so they were able to send money to people who were more desperate than themselves.

2. African Boarding School Schoarships for Relatives stranded in Africa:

A powerful way to help is to sponsor the boarding school education of a Lost Boy’s young relative(s) currently in Kakuma (or other) Refugee Camps. These children are at extreme risk of starvation. As for education, their refugee camp “schools” are held under trees with lessons scratched in dirt. Most of these youngsters are alone without adult protection and are vulnerable to being kidnapped by rebel armies. Sponsorship enables a child to attend a boarding school outside of the refugee camp. This provides each child with safe surroundings, an education, a real meal a day, a uniform, and most importantly, hope for a decent future. The cost per child is approximately $150/semester for primary school and $250/semester for secondary school. There are three semesters per school year and usually a start-up fee ($130) for their first semester. Helping to support the Lost Boys’ relatives at home allows them to focus their energies and finances on completing their own education.

3. Financial assistance for college.

This can be in the form of cash donations or assistance with finding scholarship money. Education is their primary focus, yet it is an enormous financial commitment. Being denied financial aid and their goal of an education because of their massive responsibilities both here and at home is a situation we can remedy as a community who cares.

To volunteer to help the Lost Boys in Hampton Roads, Virginia or to find out about sponsoring one of their relatives to go boarding school, please contact Julie Hill at julhill@cox.net or see the Lost Boys of Hampton Roads website at .. _`Lost Boys & Girls of Sudan `: http://www.lostboyshr.com ___________________________________________________________________ 10-29-2006

The need is immense. They have no funds and just 5 volunteers...Again, Julie Hill, volunteer:

"The battered woman whom I am helping has 5 children. She is 20 days from having her home repossessed and being homeless. They are three months behind on mortgage payments ($860/mo). Since her arm is shattered and in a cast (and husband in jail, where he should be for now) she has no income. We have applied for food-stamps for her and I got free school meals for the kids, but the electricity is on the verge of being cut off. I paid $200 on the electricity last month to keep it on but $800 is still owed on it. I paid $160 to keep the water from being cut off last month. I bought food for them three days ago. I go to all of her court dates with her (preliminary hearing, order of protection, etc.). I have been spending a lot of time with her to convince her that she is not responsible for his actions (of course he blames her even for breaking her arm).

This is just one family and there are so many more who call me and need help. I spent part of yesterday in an ER with a Lost Boy who has been having headaches and spontaneous nose bleeds over the past week. He had also been feeling weak and dizzy. His blood pressure was 140/ 86 and he waited over 7 hours to see the doctor. The doctor told him there was nothing she could do for him and sent him home. Aagh!!

Linda has been great for finding dentists in Norfolk for the guys living there. She also has been helpful at finding sponsors for their young relatives in the camp to send them to Kenyan boarding schools. Linda is full of love and enthusiasm and is one great lady. She does work full time as a teacher and has two children of her own so her time is limited but her heart is really in it. She has also raised funds from her friends and contacts to help with tuition for individual guys. In the past she has gotten her friends to plan a meal in their homes for potential donors and Lost Boys (mixers) to try to get donations.

Wendy sits on at least 12 boards and is director of about 5, I think. She is incredibly busy. Wendy plans on a macro scale for pro-active things which would help the refugees greatly if we know how to mine it and actually implement plans. Even when we come up with a worthy idea, we don’t have the steam or person-power to make it happen.

I have been working with the refugees for 5 years. I always have my mind involved with the more personal and individual problems they have. I stay frustrated that there is only one other person in there with me, visiting them in their homes and trying to help them with their problems (that person is Chaplain David Cook in Newport News). I keep hoping for more people to help them one-on-one and for other people to do pro-active things on a larger scale such as establish the 501 3C, find other volunteers, organize them, and do fundraisers.

I have also been responsible for organizing Lost Boy speakers for all events. This part has become very overwhelming for me. Since I have become so busy with the individuals in extremis, I have gotten really behind in contacting the guys to speak at events (even those scheduled for the next two weeks).