Last Sunday, February 29, over 30 people met at Almaden Episcopal Church to hear from 3 local Sudanese and to receive Sudanese Youth Opportunity student updates.
Sudanese Speakers:
John Pandak works at at our local Safeway. He told of his driving three others for five hours to vote for the South Sudan Referendum in Phoenix, Arzona. It was his first time ever to vote. Sudanese were required to go to their voting places twice! once to register and once to vote. It was a hardship that the Sudanese were more than willing to participate in. The outcome was nearly 99% in favor of establishing their new country.
Ben Makit has a security job and is finishing up his Global Studies major San Jose State. He is supporting eleven students in his Sudan family. They are in school in Kenya and in Uganda.
Samuel (Garang) Deng returned from Africa on February 11. He answered questions. He said people of the New South Sudan (to be declared July 9th) are currently getting help in writing a constitution for their new country. He talked about Abeiya where the South Sudanese oil fields are. The outcome of a new oil revenue sharing agreement will have a huge bearing on the long-term stability of South Sudan after the referendum. Sharing oil revenue was key to the Comprenhensive Peace Agreement, which brought Sudan’s long-running civil war to an end in 2005. Samuel said the Chinese have come in to run the fields. Currently crude oil (South Sudan has no refinerys) is piped to ports in the north. That will remain the process unless there is trouble with the north. Meanwhile South Sudan is trying to arrange for piping their oil through Kenya. The most exciting news was that Samuel is getting would-be Sudanese entrepreneurs together with American business people so that new businesses can be established and mentored in South Sudan. Learn more at Newscholars.net. Ben and John are returning to Sudan for visits; one in April and one in May. Carol said SYO would be glad to help with supplies etc. when they go.
Carol presented the latest reports of students progress handing out students grades to sponsors. And Sandie spoke of Dr. Nilsson, the Head of School at Sunflower Junior Academy. The school in Kapenguria is in the north west of Kenya, in a beautiful wooded area. But it is outside the delveloped area and has no water or electricity. All that must be brought in. The school has a dispensary, with nurse and dentist. When we told of how many of our students were struggling to catch up to the high standards of this school, Samuel and Ben and John all said that the children would indeed catch up and do well. And raised our hopes, telling us that students attending this kind of Kenyan school have gotten into and done well at UC Berkely.
Meanwhile, Peter Nyok continues to work hard at a meat-packing company in Oklahoma. He is supporting his wife and daughter in South Sudan and many other children he has rescued who live in Kenya. Peter sends his best regards and prayers for the work of SYO.
Do you have a used laptop computer you would like to donate to John or Ben? They would be happy to carry them back to Africa on their upcoming trips.
Would you like to hear about how learn about how you can help new Sudanese graduates living in Sudan? Visit Samuel’s website at Newscholars.net.
Contact Carol Pecora if you would like more information.
