wfn.org | "Lost Boys of Sudan" need resettlement sponsors

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Dec. 18, 2000  News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-31-71B{575}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodist church sponsors are needed for a group known as the "Lost
Boys of Sudan" as they are resettled in nine parts of the United States
early next year.

The refugees, divided into the age categories of under 18, 18 to 20 years
and 20 to 25 years, are currently living in a refugee camp in Kenya,
according to Lilia Fernandez, executive secretary for refugee ministries,
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

About 20,000 Dinka and Nuer boys - most of them orphans -- left war-torn
Sudan in the 1980s. They were able to finally escape the long-term violence
that is believed to have claimed two generations of children there.

The situation in that African country remains bleak. Catherine Bertini,
executive director of the United Nations World Food Program told the New
York Times on Dec. 15 that more than 3.2 million people in Sudan are facing
serious shortages of food and water because of the civil war and drought.

Since leaving Sudan, the boys have been shuttled among several refugee
camps. The U.S. government has agreed to resettle about 3,000 of the young
Sudanese refugees and have allotted 300 of them to Church World Service
(CWS), the relief arm of the National Council of Churches.

"They want to place them in groups, since they have been in camp together,"
said Fernandez, who is working with (CWS) on the project.

The refugees, who may begin arriving as early as February, will be resettled
in areas where the CWS affiliates can provide special services. Those areas
are: Atlanta; Dallas/Fort Worth; Denver; Lincoln/Omaha, Neb.; Louisville,
Ky.; New Haven, Conn.; Phoenix; Richmond/Virginia Beach, Va.; and Lancaster,
Pa.

United Methodists and members of other denominations are needed as sponsors
in those areas. Fernandez said that a number of congregations could work
together in sponsorship.

More information is available by calling Fernandez in New York at (212)
870-3805 or Susan Wersan, UMCOR program coordinator for refugee ministries,
at (212) 870-3807.  Fernandez may also be contacted by e-mail:
liliaf@gbgm-umc.org .

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United Methodist News Service
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