Cuts to a key international aid program by the Trump administration hit the Seeds of South Sudan education effort quickly and hard, said founder Arok Thuch Garang.
The cuts were immediately felt in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where orphans rescued by Seeds of South Sudan subsist and struggle for a better life, said Garang, one of the original Lost Boys of Sudan.
The USAID organization provided basic needs such as food and medical supplies for the 250,000 who crowded into Kakuma, said Garang, a former Westminster Schools employee.
“There wasn’t anything or anybody not affected by cuts,” he said. “Now there is a daily scramble, a daily competition for rations.”
Yet, the young orphans still yearn for an education, which Seeds works to provide through donations, mostly from Americans, Garang said. “We try and help them as much as we can. They (the orphans) want a bright future.”’
Kakuma orphans are selected to attend boarding schools in Kenya for their education. The students received three meals a day, medical care and an education, Garang said. Since the founding of Seeds of South Sudan in 2009, sponsors in the United States have helped educate 187 orphans, Garang said.
82 have graduated from high school and 24 are in college in Kenya, said Peggy Gonder, a spokeswoman for Seeds of South Sudan. Five have earned scholarships to universities in Canada.
Fleeing across Africa
Garang’s journey is one of harrowing survival. He said his family herded cattle peacefully in South Sudan until 1989 when oil was discovered on the land, and the Arab Muslim militia from Khartoum declared jihad against southern Christians and traditional believers.
The militia set fire to his village, and he fled Sudan at age seven. He said he survived with the aid of a 10-year-old cousin as they traveled 1,000 miles to Ethiopia. They had to flee Ethiopia 18 months later due to war and many died swimming across a crocodile-filled river.
It took him and his cousin a year to walk to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, “a brutally hot and dangerous place,” Garang said on the Seeds of South Sudan website.
Garang said he spent nearly 10 years in the Kakuma refugee camp before coming to Denver in 2001 with the help of the United Nations. He then earned a degree in economics at the University of Colorado-Denver.
He eventually returned to South Sudan to help his people answer God’s calling, he said.
“Throughout the years, I’ve heard God calling me to rebuild my village by educating, equipping, and empowering the South Sudanese children who survived the genocide,” Garang has said.
This week, Garang disclosed the meaning behind the Seeds of South Sudan name.
“A village elder told me I will return to my home to plant the seeds of a new life. That’s where my organization is going and why we are trying to help.”
Spreading the word
Garang began speaking to several local non-profits in May in hopes of raising awareness of Seeds of South Sudan’s effort to educate the South Sudan orphans.
His talk, “Inspiring Hope – Transforming Lives” describes Garang’s journey of survival to Kenya and then the US, where he founded Seeds of South Sudan, and he’s made his presentation at churches in Denver and in the northern suburbs, as well as Nebraska.
Garang spoke at the Secular Hub, 254 Knox Court in Denver on June 28 and at Denver’s Montview Presbyterian Church in Westminster’s Covenant Living on June 29.
His Denver Metro tour continues at 9 and 10:30 a.m. July 13 at Northglenn Christian Church, 1800 E. 105th Place in Northglenn. Check the website: https://seedsofsouthsudan.org for updates and more information.
To schedule Arok Garang to speak to your group, email info@seedsofsouthsudan.org or leave a message at 720-644-6662 by July 8.