The Synergy Project Magazine - August 2020

THE SURV
THE STOR
B
By Emma Munro
Many school-age children view school
as more of a social activity than an
educational opportunity. When asked,
some students say that their favorite
subject is recess or lunch, and only some
are joking. But what if the education that
they took for granted was ripped from
their hands? What would happen if these
immature kids were thrown into an adults’
war and forced to flee their homes? How
would they react? Would they lose hope,
or would they keep fighting until they
found safety? Would they even attempt
to resume their
education in the
face of adversity?
Even though some
would lose hope,
the Lost Boys of
Sudan, a group of
young refugees,
fled to safety while
continuing to learn.
Their inspiring
story began with the
Second Sudanese
Civil War.
War has
been known to
tear families and
countries apart, and
the Second Sudanese
Civil War was no
different. Lasting
from 1983 to 2005,
it resulted in the deaths of two million
Sudanese people and the displacement
of four million. Starting as a rebellion
led by the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army (SPLA) in the southern region of
Sudan, the Second Sudanese Civil War
occured in response to the northern-run
government’s attempts to reduce religious
diversity and limit the southern Sudanese
people’s political power (McDermott). The
political turmoil caused by the war put
the Sudanese people in a very dangerous
situation; they were caught in the crossfire
between the government and the SPLA.
These unfortunate people were forced
to flee their homes and relocate to other
areas of Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt,
and even as far away as the United States.
Refugees were faced with no choice but to
uproot their lives and go to these camps,
which were often made hastily and housed
more refugees than the camps could hold
(McDermott). These poor conditions left
the refugees desperate and in dire need of
assistance.
The chaos that forced the refugees
to flee often led to the separation of
families, notably young boys. According
to the novel They Poured Fire on Us from
the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost
Boys from Sudan, girls were “sold into
slavery and taken into northern Sudan”
when villages were invaded, while the
boys escaped because they happened
to be tending to the animals during
the invasion. These children’s parents
were then killed during the onslaught
(Bernstein xxii). Many of these boys
banded together and formed the Lost Boys
of Sudan, a group of refugee boys aged
eight to eighteen who traveled thousands
of miles in an attempt to find safety
(Walgren 40). As stated in the Africa
Report, a large population of these boys
had “no idea where their families [had]
gone” (Walgren 40). Despite fleeing
for their lives to escape the perils of the
Second Sudanese Civil War, the Lost
Boys persevered and
focused on their
education to improve
their future.
The Lost
Boys were forced
to uproot their
camps repeatedly
as the threat of
the war loomed
closer. 12,000
children traveled
across “deserts, steep
mountains, and
zones of conflict” to
Cambela, Ethiopia
in 1987 where the
SPLA’s ally, Mengistu
Haile Mariam, was
in power. A camp
for the Lost Boys
was built and run
by the Sudanese Relief and Rehabilitation
Agency along with the SPLA (Walgren
40). These young boys were simply trying
to escape the war, and they found help
in the rebels, which would cause trouble
in the future. Unfortunately, Colonel
Mengistu was overthrown in 1991, so
the boys traveled back through southern
Sudan and the Sahel, where swarms
of mosquitoes carrying malaria were
located (Walgren 40). These boys were so
22 POLITICAL