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From Patricia Shafer with Mothering Across Continents in Charlotte:
You shared a very important message when you printed Nicholas D. Kristof's New York Times column "Don't let Manute Bol's dream die, too" (June 28 Viewpoint). Sudan has suffered one of the longest running civil wars in Africa and is greatly in need of development, especially primary school education.
One of former NBA star Manute Bol's dreams before he died was to support southern Sudanese refugees who came to the U.S. and are known as "Lost Boys of Sudan" as they aspire to build schools back home. One of those young men, Lubo "James" Mijak, lives in Charlotte.
Of 30,000 Lost Boys of Sudan, Lubo is one of only 3,800 who received a special invitation to come to North America and 100 who came to the Carolinas. He earned an undergraduate degree from UNC Charlotte and has been working diligently on his project, "Raising Sudan," that has been adopted by the Charlotte-based non-profit charity Mothering Across Continents.
Lubo's dream is to raise enough money to build multiple schools in Ruweng County, southern Sudan, starting with raising $150,000 to build a primary school for 300-plus children in his home village of Nyarweng. The village does not have even one primary school, and 90 percent of adults, including Lubo's sisters, can't read. As he often says, "From education comes wisdom, and from wisdom comes peace."
When Lubo first returned to his home village in 2007, having been away for more than 20 years - with 11 spent in refugee camps and six in Charlotte - he discovered a lack of roads, food and medicine. Yet, in spite of all that is missing, parents and community leaders hunger most for their children's education. Lubo himself has served as a volunteer teacher under the trees.
I'm often asked why we should care about educating children in far-away places like southern Sudan. In response, I think first of courageous young men like Lubo. He fled for his life when he was 8 years old, swam across crocodile-infested rivers, endured years of hardship, avoided being inducted as a child soldier, found his way to and adjusted to life in the U.S., and now simply invites our community here to help him share the benefits of education with his former community there.
Supporting Lubo as one Lost Boy of Sudan is our chance to keep an important dream alive.
