Lost Boy, now man, recounts tale of survival
Sudanese CivilWar survivor tells of flight through Africa, to the U.S.
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

Abraham Awolich

METUCHEN - At the age of 7, Abraham Awolich found himself displaced from his home in Sudan and alone.

"We all had to run away and hide," said Awolich, who in 1988 fled his home on foot without his family. "I wasn't withmy family at the time we started running away. My family also fled. I turned 8 on the road."

Awolich, now 27 years old, told his story to a small crowd at The Raconteur Book Store in November and is currently on tour with Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng.

Eggers wrote the book "What Is the What," an epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, who, along with thousands of other children- the so-called Lost Boys- was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of 7 and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom.

In 1983, the Second Sudanese CivilWar began in southern Sudan, in which roughly 1.9 million civilians were killed and 4 million civilians were displaced.

The second war followed the First Sudanese CivilWar of 1955 to 1972.

President Gaafar Nimeiry attempted to create a federated Sudan that included states in southern Sudan, which violated the Addis Ababa Agreement that had granted the south considerable autonomy.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), based in southern Sudan and opposing the Islamic government in the north, formed in May 1983. The following month, the Sudanese government under Nimeiry abrogated the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement. The situation was exacerbated in September of that same year, afterNimeiry implemented Sharia law, which is the legal framework within which the public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence and forMuslims living outside the domain.

The war continued even after Numeiry was

ousted and a democratic government was elected with Al Sadig Al Mahdi's Umma Party having the majority in the parliament. The leader of the SPLA, John Garang, refused to recognize the government and to negotiate with it as representative of Sudan, but agreed to negotiate with government officials as representative of their political parties.

In early 1985, the people saw serious shortages of fuel and bread in Khartoum, a growing insurgency in the south, drought and famine, and an increasingly difficult refugee burden.

Awolich began his trek with other young boys and girls like himand others, and they struggled some days without water and moved in dangerous territories of snakes and lions.

"Some drank their own urine and lost their lives due to starvation and exhaustion," he said. "I almost died due to a stomach virus."

Things were different when the civilians who fled southern Sudan reached Ethiopia. Families brought in some of the civilians, and some were placed in refugee camps.

However in 1991, the group was on the road again, feeding on wild vegetables, fruits and berries.

"To our surprise, so many of our people are captured- some are brainwashed and converted to Islam," said Awolich, who trekked from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya.

The group reached Kakuma, Kenya, where they were placed in refugee camps. Food was sparse, but education was provided.

"For a two-week period, civilians received 7 pounds of corn, 2 pounds of wheat flour and one cup of beans," saidAwolich. "I ate once a day, and the food was not good."

The war went on formore than 20 years. The conflict officially ended with the signing of a peace agreement in January 2005, even though fighting still continues to the present day and hundreds of thousands remain internally displaced.

Awolich along with some of the so-called Lost Boys- the name given by aid organizations to refer to the more than 27,000 boys who were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese CivilWar- made their way to the United States.

In Eggers' book, he writes that very few Sudanese women and elders followed the Lost Boys' trek to the U.S.

"…Thus we rely on each other for virtually everything," wrote Eggers.

"I came with some of the people I had been with [at the refugee camps]," said Awolich, who said he and others had to go through a process before coming to the United States. "We had to go through interviews, medical tests, and study the culture and understandAmerica. It took two years."

Like some, Awolich said he didn't know anybody in America. At the age of 21, Awolich left Kenya for Bollington, Vt., in February 2001.

"They told us that it would be a little cold, but we thought it couldn't be as bad as what we had been through … we had lived in a cold place before," he said.

Awolich, who said Sudan has no winter and fall, arrived by plane in New York on Valentine's Day with four other Lost Boys, and then they traveled to Vermont.

"February is summer in Sudan…it was a big adjustment," said Awolich, who had his first experience with snow in Vermont. "We had no jackets and were wearing regular African shirts…it was very cold."

The Lost Boys were confused about the place where they were sent to live.

"Where we come from, everyone is outside and talks to everyone, but no one was in the street when we arrived," said Awolich. "We thought they sent us to the wrong place…it took as a while to connect that snow was causing it to be cold and that's why no one was in the street."

The Lost Boys learned quickly that choices could bemade and there was plenty of food.

Awolich attended the University of Vermont, studying anthropology and business. He graduated in 2005.

In 2006, the Lost Boys had the opportunity to go back to the place they had fled from … it had been 17 years since Awolich left his home.

"We decided to go right away," said Awolich, who said he has wanted to go back for so long and see his family. "It looked different than the picture I had inmymind… people were living in temporary shelters… I only recognized my mother, because I left when my brothers were young, and I learned that my father had died."

Awolich said his family is doing well and itwas a sense of hope seeing them; however, the devastation that he sawthere convinced him that sustainable development needed to take place if Sudan is to recover from decades of civil war.

"I believe that education is the most effective way for Sudan to rebuild peacefully," he said.

Awolich is the co-director and co-founder of the New Sudan Education Initiative [NESEI], which is a partnership between the Sudanese and a global network of supporterswho have come together to bring the gift of education to Sudan.

The NESEI is working to ensure a lasting peace in the Sudanese region by building 20 schools by 2015.

According to UNICEF, Sudan has the lowest access to primary education in the world, with only 33 percent of children between the ages of 7 and 14 going to school, and 5 percent of all high-school-age children going to secondary school.

For more information on NESEI, visit theirWeb site at www.nesei.org.

Copies of Eggers' book "What Is the What" are available at The Raconteur Book Store, 431 Main St.