New Times - May 2012 - Uniting Church in Australia

Every year the Uniting Church calendar highlights story of
encouragement and challenge from within our mission and
ministry. We only see a short snippet of those stories in the
calendar, so New Times will be sharing a little more with
you over in each month of the coming year.
Growing a dream
Filmmaker George Lucas said, “Dreams are extremely
important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” Teresa
Bol had the guts to imagine a hospital in the war-torn Abyei
region of Sudan, and began fundraising when she was just
14. Louise Heinrich finds out what’s been happening with the
star of our May calendar photo, and her vision for the future.
Kenyan-born Teresa Bol and her family moved to Australia
when she was nine, due to unrest in the region. The Bol family
has roots in Abyei, an oil-rich area on the border between
Sudan and South Sudan, which both countries continue to
struggle over.
Several years ago, her mother got in touch with relatives
still living in Abyei in an effort to find Teresa’s father, who had
disappeared in the civil conflict.
Not only do residents deal with troops and the threat of
landmines, but much infrastructure has been destroyed,
making medicine and up-to-date equipment hard to come by.
“We started contacting family members to find out what
happened,” Teresa says. “We found out my mother’s brother
broke his knee in a car accident, but the nearest hospital was
very far. His leg became infected; he had a heart attack and
died.
“My Auntie needed a blood transfusion, but the place where
she had it done gave her the wrong type and she also passed
away.”
“Here, if I need anything, an ambulance would come in five
minutes. But in Sudan, there is no such thing. Someone has
to take [patients] a long way to medical attention, and the
hospitals aren’t very good.”
Teresa, who is just shy of 18, speaks plainly about these
injustices and is obviously passionate for change. With the
help of Enfield Uniting Church members, she established
Hope for Abyei as a charity in 2009, to build a hospital in her
former home-town, when Teresa was just 14.
“When I started this, I was very young and optimistic. Now,
I am figuring out how to do this seriously.”
Although much of her adolescent naivety has faded,
Teresa is determined to continue with her venture, confirming
that youthful passion and ethics can blossom into adult
understanding of difficulties and responsibilities.
Currently studying Health Sciences, and planning to move
into medicine, Teresa is preparing for a lifetime of helping
others.
“My degree will give me more knowledge with what I can do
with Hope for Abyei. I don’t want to just build the hospital and
come back to Australia. I want to help build it and work there
and keep it running healthily.
“God has helped me, and in response I will help others.”