February 22, 2010
Story by Tony Paniagua
Southern Arizona is home to thousands of refugees from many different countries and even though some have lived through harrowing experiences, they remain optimistic about the future. John Akuar is one of them.
He is one of the thousands of "Lost Boys of Sudan" who was forced to flee from his village as a child due to a civil war. Beginning at the age of eight, Akuar was facing the separation from his family, dangerous rivers and animals, violent scenarios and other problems. However, he was eventually able to settle in a refugee camp in Kenya where he lived for 12 years before moving to Tucson in 2004.
Akuar now has a full-time job and is also a full-time student at the University of Arizona but he's taking on another project: He's trying to build a well and a school for the people of his village in Sudan. "They don’t have blackboards to write on," he says. "Like in the school where I went I talked to the headmaster of that school they only have one blackboard that they take from class to class. They have it in one class for 20 or 25 minutes and they have to move it to another class so that’s a terrible situation. "
Akuar is getting assistance from the members of a local church, St Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church, where members helped him to make the trip back home for the first time since 1987. But the group is trying to get the word out to encourage others to help out. Akuar says, " When I came to United States here I spent five years and what came into my mind is that God must have a reason for why I did not die. I dodged bullets, my friends were eaten by lions, some of them died in the river and I passed through that situation. There must be a reason why God kept me and this is the reason. I have to give back to the community." He plans to return to Sudan this summer to work more on the plans for the project.
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