Sudanese 'Lost boy' at home at Touro

Sudanese 'Lost boy' at home at Touro
By Tony Burchyns/ Times-Herald, Vallejo
Posted: 12/01/2008 01:00:47 AM PST


As Americans gave thanks last week, Deng Jongkuch also counted his blessings.

A native of southern Sudan, Jongkuch has survived one of Africa's cruelest civil wars and managed to reach the United States and Touro University in Vallejo.

He arrived in the United States in 2001 with 3,800 other refugees. Their story gained recognition through the 2003 documentary film "Lost Boys of Sudan," which focuses on the lives of two of the young men.

Jongkuch, who estimates he is 27 (his village kept no birth records), is planning to return to southern Sudan after earning a master's degree in public health.

He wants to help his country rebuild as a front-line health official, educating people in tribal villages about HIV, cholera and other issues.

"I knew I wanted to get an education, and get back to my country to help," he said.

In the meantime, he is working with supporters, including Bay Area professors, on a project to build an elementary school in his native village. The project's Web site is www.impactavillage.org.

"I have experienced good things and bad things in my life," said Jongkuch, whose mild manners mask his turbulent past. "I learned, keep your head up and have courage, and just appreciate the little things. ... Just coming to the U.S. has changed my life so much."

Attending graduate school on a full scholarship, Jongkuch commutes once a week from San Jose to attend a night class. He plans to move to Vallejo next year to focus more on his studies.

In his free time, he works on his goal of raising $10,000 by next summer to build an elementary school.

"They had no electricity or water," Jongkuch said of his native village of Bor, to which he returned for the first time in 2005. "So my project is to build a school in my village."

Three years ago, on his first pilgrimage, he brought a flour mill to the village. That deed earned him Touro University's award this fall for outstanding global service.

"He has a tremendous amount of commitment," Touro University Global Health Program Director Eiman Mahmoud said. "He really wants to improve the conditions of his people back in the South. And he does it with no bitterness or looking back on the hard times."

Mahmoud, a professor at the Mare Island medical campus, is a Sudanese immigrant who has been a mentor to Jongkuch.

"The reason I mentored Deng throughout the past four or five years is because I saw in him not only the strong commitment, but the willingness to overcome any obstacle," Mahmoud said. "He's got this energy ... after living in displacement camps ... there is nothing that will stop him from doing what he believes."

After spending nearly 10 years in a Kenyan refugee camp, Jongkuch qualified to relocate to San Jose in 2001, after a lengthy screening process by U.S. officials.

He got a job as a stockman and attended De Anza Community College. In May, he earned his bachelor's degree in health administration at San Jose State University.

Sudan's modern conflicts started in 1983, when a religious civil war broke out between Christian and Muslim factions. The fighting lasted for more than two decades. Ethnic and tribal fighting continues in the western region of Darfur.

Jongkuch said he was forced to flee his village in 1987 after Sudan government troops invaded, taking girls and killing many adults. Fearing for his life, Jongkuch and a few other young boys escaped in the middle of the night.

Troubles continued in 1991, he said, when the Ethiopian refugee camp he was living in was attacked by rebels

The band of refugees, including 10-year-old Jongkuch, fled into the desert toward northern Kenya. They survived lion attacks and starvation.

"That journey took a year of walking," Jongkuch said. "People estimated we walked 1,000 miles. A lot of people lost their lives due to starvation, lack of water and wild animals."

Roughly 16,000 refugees made it to Kenya in 1992. The United Nations provided food and education, allowing Jongkuch to learn English and complete high school.

"He has an incredible story," Touro University professor Assefaw Ghebrekidan said. Ghebrekidan works with other Bay Area professors to train health workers in Sudan. "But what is also incredible, despite all his suffering, is the final outcome was positive for him. He is going to go back to his village where he came from to try to make a difference ... to be a part of history in southern Sudan."