My
name is Gatjang Matai Deng
I am a former Southern Sudanese "Lost Boy." I’ve
been in the United States for almost
4 years. I came from Southern Sudan
which was a place of war. I
still remember the way things
were in my country. If
peace comes to my country I
want to be
able to focus on how to make
things better. Since I came to
the United States I have met
people
and I know that there is a way
to work together to help.
The problem is that if there is finally peace in Sudan,
I want the children to get an education. Right
now, the
children do
not have enough equipment or schools for education because
everything was demolished during the two decades war.
There are people who want to educate the children,
but they have
no support. There are no school buildings, books,
desks or tables, computers
or anything necessary for education. This is
the first goal that I have.
I
need help because everything requires money. I know the
American people are good people and many of them understand
the
problems in Sudan. I cannot do anything on my own unless
I have people
supporting me. I would like to go back home during
my semester breaks and if there are any volunteers who
would like to
come with me to see the conditions of the children
in Sudan they can come. I am ready to do this because
I trust the
peace talks in Sudan because the International community
and the Human Rights
watch and the American people are involved.
To
help, I need to get funds, and I am working to find funding.
I am going to start my own non-profit organization
to work internationally. The problem is so big
but I am going to
start small, and maybe after that I can meet the challenge
of Sudan to be educated. I have the experience
of the situation of the people back
home. I lived in the jungle for almost 15 years. If
I came to this country, I need people to know the problems
back
home. It is not political, I just need the children
to get an education
to be the future of the country.
My
village is in the
upper Nile region, I
want to begin by helping there, but if I get more support,
I want all of Southern
Sudan to have schools someday. I want to build a
school, make
sure the
teachers are paid, right now the few teachers are all
volunteers, and I want the children to have
enough equipment to get an
education. Even
now, I am supporting the people trying to teach as
much
as I can. I send them money when I can afford
it to buy chalk for the chalkboard and
other
things.
If you want to help with a donation or as a volunteer,
please email me through this website. We can
speak directly if necessary.
My next semester break is May 2005. I
hope we can have significant progress by then, and
maybe
make
our first
trip.
Sincerely,
Gatjang Matai Deng
