September 18, 2006, VOW presented our first WITWIGO (What in the World is Going On) on Darfur and Sudan, at the Mission Valley Library. 

Majur Malou addresses the audience.
Judy Bernstein and Zacharia Akol are
seated.

Our speakers were: Judy Bernstein, co-author of They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys of Sudan; Majur Malou, Associate Director, St Luke's Sudanese Refugee Network; and Zacharia Akol, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Ms. Bernstein showed a video of a 60 Minutes program, featuring the 30,000 Lost Boys who walked from their homes in Northern Sudan to Ethiopia.  Some were as young as seven; the walk took many months, and the boys suffered tremendous ordeals.  Often they were forced to eat mud, they were beaten by soldiers and attacked by wild animals.  

Mr. Malou talked about the African and Arab culture clash in Sudan.  95% of the population of Darfur is Arab - they want to wipe out the Africans who are Christian.  The women, children and the elderly suffer the most through killing, rape, disease. We are their hope. A peace agreement was signed in Southern Sudan because women were involved in the process. 

Mr. Akol came to San Diego five years ago.  He is in the Peace & Justice Masters program at USD.  He speaks impeccable English.  He explained that the boys don't like to be referred to as Lost Boys, that term was coined to sell the news and capture humanity's conscience.  When he was 9 years old he decided to leave his family and his village and walk south.  He was one of the boys who arrived in Ethiopia in 1989.  He said that the U.S. has not been active enough about addressing the plight of the Sudanese people.  The boys now live in 36 states in 70 cities across the U.S.  In 2004, Mr. Akol co-founded the National Lost Boys and Girls Association in the U.S. 

As a result of this event, Voices of Women sent $250 to Jewish World Watch to purchase 20 solar cookers for 10 families in Darfur.  The cookers do not require firewood, therefore the women do not have to leave the camps to search for it;  this is when they are raped and sometimes killed.