The Hope and Human Rights
Speaker Series
John Bul Dau, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, is a survivor of a 14-year journey from his home village in Kuk County, Sudan in 1987 to his arrival in Syracuse, New York in 2001, having fled a genocide in 1987 that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions. He was featured in the award-winning documentary, God Grew Tired of Us, and, with Michael Sweeney, wrote a memoir of the same title published by National Geographic. John is the founder of four non-profit foundations that are working to bring peace and prosperity to troubled Sudan – the John Dau Foundation, the Sudanese Lost Boys Foundation of New York, the American Care for Sudan Foundation, and the South Sudan Institute.
Film
Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees — Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior — as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
Book
Lost Boy, Lost Girl, John Bul Dau’s harrowing experience surviving the brutal horrors of Sudanese civil war and his adjustment to life in modern America is chronicled in this inspiring memoir and featured in an award-winning documentary film of the same name. Movingly written, the book traces Dau’s journey through hunger, exhaustion, terror, and violence as he fled his homeland, dodging ambushes, massacres and attacks by wild animals. His tortuous, 14-year journey began in 1987, when he was just 13, and took him on a 1,000-mile walk, barefoot, to Ethiopia, back to Sudan, then to a refugee camp in Kenya, where he lived with thousands of other Lost Boys. In 2001, at the age of 27, he immigrated to the United States. With touching humor, Dau recounts the shock of his tribal culture colliding with life in America. He shares the joy of reuniting with his family and the challenges of making a new life for himself while never forgetting the other Lost Boys he left behind.
The John Dau Foundation is fulfilling the dream of the former Lost Boy and genocide survivor John Dau to provide healthcare in the war-torn region of South Sudan by building and sustaining medical clinics and training community health workers. Currently the John Dau Foundation also administers nutrition programs in several villages in Duk County, where they conduct nutritional screenings and food programs that specifically target children and pregnant/lactating women.