Comprehensive information and links about Lost Boys of Sudan

Lost Boys of Sudan This is about the International Rescue Committee program. For other uses see Lost Boys (disambiguation) is the name of an International Rescue Committee program to resettle refugee boys from Sudan to the United States who were displaced andor orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1984-present, about 2 million killed).

In 2001 about 3800 Lost Boys arrived in the United States, where they are now scattered in about 38 cities, averaging about 100 per city. Halted after 911 for security reasons, the program restarted in 2004, but peace talks were underway in Sudan, and so other refugee crisis in other countries took priority.

Most of the boys were orphaned or separated from their families when government troops systematically attacked villages in southern Sudan killing many of the inhabitants, most of whom were civilians. The younger boys survived in large numbers because they were away tending herds or were able to escape into the nearby jungles. Orphaned and with no support, they would make epic journeys lasting years across the borders to international relief camps in Ethiopia and Kenya evading thirst, starvation, wild animals, insects, disease, and one of the most bloody wars of the 20th century. Examiners say they are the most badly war-traumatised children ever examined. Are there any Lost Girls? When villages were attacked girls were raped, killed, taken as slaves to the north, or became servants or adopted children for other Sudanese families, very few by comparison made it to the refugee camps.

Books and film

There have been a number of books and films about the Lost Boys including:

. [2]. The true story in their own words of the 14-year journey of Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng and Benjamin Ajak, now living in the San Diego area.2004: The 7th Heaven episode "Lost and Found" (season 8, first aired May 3, 2004), depicted two "Lost Boys" from Sudan.