HOPE to Sudan

Bringing Hope to Sudan
The Gazette, Colorado Springs by Andrea Brown

Famine. Disease. Death. "That's a day in Sudan," Stephen Dokolo, 31, said about life in his wartorn homeland. "No electricity. No good roads. No running water," he said. "Girls in Sudan are more likely to die in childbirth than attend elementary school." Still, Dokolo told the Sunday afternoon audience at First Congregational Church, there is one thing years of war can't take away. "We want to give our children hope," he said.

Dokolo, Kayanga, Andrew and Bullen, Sudanese men are on a nine-city "One day in Sudan" tour in America to raise awareness and mobilize resources at political, church and civic groups.

The men told of millions of displaced families, enslaved women and wide hunger from the fighting that ended -- on paper -- with the signing of a peace agreement in January 2005. While the men spoke, photographs flashed on a background screen: sunken-faced children dying of starvation, smiling kids playing in simple schoolyards, refugees walking through intense heat without water, people dancing and praying. The tour is sponsored by a Tennessee-based ministry whose president met the men doing relief missions in Sudan. Edmonds recruited the men for the American tour, which started in March 06 and will end in June 2006.

"We dig gardens to support our families. People live in small mud and grass huts. Women walk up to 10 miles a day carrying four pounds of water. Rice and beans are the main fare. Normally, it is only one meal a day." Kayanga said. "People are very skinny"

Bullen Dolli, 21 and Andrew Mandis, 22 are students -- High school students. "I finished my elementary school in 1997, but I had to wait at home. There is no high school there," Bullen said.

We experienced only war, running from jungle to jungle,hiding," said Andrew, whose three sisters were held captive by the government during the war.
The two men moved to Uganda for high school. "It is three days away," Bullen said.

The trip to America is filled with new things: Machines washing clothes. Electricity. Nice roads. Everything here is really easy," Bullen said.