VIRGINIA BEACH
Next month, Dut Daniel Akech hopes to see his mother and father for the first time in 21 years.
He will travel from Virginia Beach to Uganda, then to Juba in southern Sudan and finally to his tiny village of Awiel Town.
He hasn't seen the place where he grew up, or his family and friends, since the morning in 1987 when he ran from a dawn attack on his village. He was 7 years old.
Akech is one of thousands of child refugees called the Lost Boys of Sudan, young men who escaped the violence of the Sudanese civil war, in many cases walking for months or years before reaching the safety of neighboring countries.
The conflict in the region continues.
"There may be danger, but I really want to see my family," Akech said.
He plans to spend a month traveling around Sudan visiting relatives.
After escaping his village, Akech lived in camps in Ethiopia and Kenya before moving to the United States in 2004.
He asked a friend in Africa for help finding his family, and in 2006 was able to contact his mother on the village's only telephone.
"She said that she was my only mother, and that she would like to see me again before she died," he said.
Since then he has tried to return, not only to see his family but to investigate the possibility of opening an orphanage there.
"In my life I have seen a lot of suffering," he said. "I have seen children with diseases, with no home, with no parents. I really want to help. But how can I do that? I have to get an education."
Akech is a full-time student at Tidewater Community College, where he also works part- time.
His airfare for the trip has been paid for, but he still needs money for other trip expenses.
Anyone wishing to donate can contact Outreach Africa: Lost Boys Foundation at P.O. Box 11001, Norfolk, VA 23517 or call (757) 623-3644. Checks can be made payable to Outreach Africa, and please write Dut Daniel Akech in the memo line.
Jim Washington, (757) 446-2536, jim.washington@pilotonline.com
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