New Sudan Education Initiative

Just got back from a presentation by Abraham Awolich founder and director of the New Sudan Educational Initiative (NESEI). He told his incredible story of fleeing at the age of 7 from the 1983 conflict between North and South Sudan running first to Ethiopia and then Kenya and surviving untold sufferings from long walks through the bush, snakes, lions, disease, hunger, thirst, crossing rivers in the rainy season and finally ending up as a refugee in Burlington, VT. It was a moving story and he told it with dignity, humility, and strength.

He was here to tell us though about the work that he is engaged in along with many supporters to raise money for his people to rebuild the Southern part of Sudan starting with education. Education so that people will have the basic knowledge to prevent disease, education so that child soldiers will have something to hope for so that they will put down their guns which is all they have known after losing their families, education so that there will be teachers and farmers and small businesses. An entire society has been decimated by over 20 years of war.

Going to these events is both inspiring and upsetting for me. I am upset by the inequality. I am upset by the thought of all this senseless war and violence. I am upset that I am not doing anything about it. I am upset by the comfort and peace that I enjoy. I am upset by the sense of responsibility that I feel to be doing something for Africa.

When I walked outside this morning into the cool Connecticut autumn sunshine I had a strange recollection of sunny winter mornings in Zimbabwe when the air is crisp and cool against the skin but the sun is bright and warm. I remembered a particular trip to a village when a group of us drove over dusty roads to visit with Baha'is. I remember walking with a beautiful girl who was not dressed for the cool evening air but who assured me she was not cold as she was used to it. We walked together and climbed onto a large rock that was still warm from the sunshine it had absorbed during the day to watch the sunset over the Southern African savannah. She was teaching me a song they had been singing that day. I remember being aware that the experience was as perfect and complete as beauty could ever be.

Why do I have this longing to do something? It is a longing that is coupled with both a sense of helplessness and a sense of deep fear and deep dread. Africa frightens me with my perception of the depth of its need and suffering. It torments me with the thoughts of my mother's violent death in the home where I grew up. On the one hand I feel that I have nothing to give Africa and on the other I feel that I too must offer up my life for Africa. Not for Africa's sake but just so that I myself can be healed. Healed from the weight of unformed, unspoken and yet still broken promises.

Well Abraham Awolich is doing something and I gave his efforts a small token of my support.

You can too at http://www.nesei.org/