Building Minds in Hastings to Build Minds in Sudan

Having trouble coming up with what you're thankful for this year?

For a number of locals who attended a special presentation Saturday at the , the task got considerably easier after hearing this story:

—Cousins Sebastian Maroundit and Mathon Noi said that when they first arrived in the United States after escaping war-torn Sudan in the  1990's, they were most concerned with rebuilding themselves—their own physical and emotional well-beings. When they returned to Africa in 2007, Maroundit enrolled his two brothers who survived in a school in Kenya because education just wasn't an option in Sudan.

One day, a young boy who knew Maroundit was supporting his brothers' international education asked: "What about us?"—

Sebastian Maroundit and Mathon Noi are two of the young men who were able to escape when government-supported militia attacked their village. They fled into the bush and became two of thousands of children who would later be dubbed "The Lost Boys of Sudan." After seeking refuge in Ethiopia, that country, too, was stricken by war.

They escaped from Ethiopia and spent a year walking across the desert to a refugee camp in Kenya. In 2001, they were selected as two of the 3,800 who would resettle in the United States. Noi recently graduated from Niagara University majoring in accounting, while Maroundit is pursuing his business degree. 

On Saturday, the cousins presented their goals to return to Sudan and build schools. Their nonprofit organization "Building Minds in Sudan" has already begun plans to break ground on a school to serve 360 students in Mayen-Abun. Since the school will be constructed using funds from donations alone, it will proceed classroom-by-classroom.

My parents, who attended the presentation, were deeply moved by Noi and Maroundit's story of having survived their march "despite that Noi had been shot in the hand, the leg and the foot."

When my father asked two students in attendance if they could take off their shoes and walk to Atlanta, they both responded: "I can't even imagine it."

Learn more about "Building Minds in Sudan" here.

For more information, contact organization trustee Ted Avgerinos at vantiq@frontiernet.net.