Morrisville to host presentation by one of the Lost Boys of Sudan

Morrisville State College is hosting a presentation by Gabriel Bol Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, at 2 p.m., Oct. 2 in the STUAC theatre. The presentation is free and open to the public.



During his presentation, Deng will chronicle his life journey. In 1987, the North Sudanese Murahileen militiamen led a violent attack on his village of Ariang in South Sudan. Deng, who was 10 years old at the time, fled into a forest, embarking on a perilous four-month journey that involved crossing the Nile River and miles of desert; surviving disease and devastating hunger to reach the Dimma Refugee Camp in Ethipoia.



Thousands of other young South Sudanese charted a similar path to flee the civil war and became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

In 2001, Deng came to the U.S. and settled in Syracuse. In 2007, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Le Moyne College.



After graduating, Deng returned to Ariang to look for his family, where he reunited with two of his brothers, the only immediate family members known to have survived the war. The visit inspired his HOPE for Ariang Foundation, a non-profit organization which works to help rebuild Ariang and its residents.