Authentic Voices. Important Topics.

Rebuilding Hope
A lecture/film program about South Sudan

Rebuilding Hope chronicles the homecoming to South Sudan of Gabriel Bol Deng, Garang Mayuol and Koor Garang, and their efforts to develop healthcare, clean water and education in their villages. All three were forced to flee their homes twenty years ago as young children, when militiamen led violent attacks on their villages. They crossed South Sudan on foot, surviving disease and paralyzing hunger to reach safety in a refugee camp in Ethiopia and then Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, before coming to the US in 2001.

In 2007, accompanied by filmmaker Jen Marlowe and journalist David Morse, who were supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Gabriel Bol, Koor and Garang returned to Sudan to seek their families and help their communities. Questions about the conditions they found and the status of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) lead them to speak with state ministers of health and education as well as the Secretary General of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the President of South Sudan. They returned to the refugee camp in Kenya where they had lived for nine years, visiting their former school and talking to refugees about whether or not they intend to return home to Sudan.

Along the way, they assessed the hopes, dreams and fears of the Southern Sudanese people nearly three years after the signing of the CPA, and explored the connections between the conflict in South Sudan to conflicts in other parts of Sudan, including Darfur, probing the larger questions of identity and ethnicity in Sudan.

Jen Marlowe and David Morse present a comprehensive look at the crisis in Sudan, its historical roots, and human cost—as well as the connection between South Sudan and the crisis in Darfur. Before screening excerpts from the film. Jen and David will give the audience a brief introduction to the topic; following the clips, they will bring the audience up to date on the individual stories and the current situation in Sudan. Inspirational and informative, the program will conclude with a call to action and the message that individual activists can make a difference.

Jen Marlowe has spoken at dozens of universities, schools, community groups, congregations, and film festivals about the situation in Darfur and South Sudan, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. She has nearly a decade of experience in peace-building and conflict resolution in locations such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Cyprus. As part of a three-person team, she traveled to Northern Darfur and Eastern Chad to make the documentary film Darfur Diaries: Message from Home and wrote the accompanying book. She is a founding member of the "Rachel's Words" initiative. Jen is currently writing a book and a play about Palestine and Israel and is on the board of directors of Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Her writing can be found online at The Nation, Alternet and Counterpunch.

David Morse is an independent journalist, novelist, and human rights activist who has given dozens of talks and radio interviews about Darfur and Sudan. His essays have appeared in Esquire, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, and various newspapers. His investigative articles have appeared on-line on Salon, TomDispatch, Mother Jones on-line, Counterpunch, Truthout, and countless blogs. A teacher (in a past life) of high school and college students, David is adept at facilitating discussions that have impact.

Koor Garang lives in Tucson, AZ. He finished his coursework to become a Licensed Practical Nurse and is continuing with his Associates Degree and hopes to become an RN. Koor raised thousands of dollars to bring medical supplies and treated mosquito nets on his homecoming trip; now he is trying to raise funds to return to South Sudan to provide training to nurses working in a newly built clinic in Akon.

Gabriel Bol Deng lives in Syracuse, NY. He graduated from Le Moyne College with a Bachelors in math education and philosophy in May 2007. Gabriel received the 2006 Distinguished Student Teacher of the Year and the 2007 Le Moyne College Social Justice Awards. Deng has founded the non-profit organization 'HOPE for Sudan' in order to help his village build, maintain and support a primary school. He is pursuing Masters Degree in Education at Le Moyne College. Currently, Gabriel tutors mathematics at a high school in Syracuse.

Garang Mayuol lives in Wheaton, IL. He received his Associates Degree in May and is continuing his studies in order to receive a degree in business management. On his trip home, Garang realized that a clean water system in his village is a critical step towards preventing cholera and other water-borne diseases. He plans to raise money to build a system of water pumps in his village.

For more information about "Rebuilding Hope", visit www.rebuildinghopesudan.org

All photos courtesy David Morse, www.david-morse.com

To book this speaker, call (206) 529-4711 or email info@samaralectures.com