A few weeks ago, early on a Saturday morning, I found myself at the Cornerstone Christian Church in Richmond, VA, sitting in a chair in the Church social hall. Facing me were perhaps 15 young (and not so young) immigrants from various parts of Sudan.
I had wrestled for perhaps two weeks since I was invited to kick off a two-day seminar on volunteer organizing, trying to figure out what I could offer that would be of value. For each of these immigrants were members of the Lost Boys (or Girls) of Sudan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_of_Sudan.
The story behind my being there started in the early 1970’s. In those days I was active in the College Republicans. The then much less famous Karl Rove started a program to teach College Republican students to organize on campus in Fieldman’s Schools held all around the country. I was one of the faculty for many of them. One of those schools was attended by the then State Chair of Georgia, Andrea Poynter.
Andrea after getting married after college ended up in Richmond where now as Andrea McDaniel became an Emmy winning TV newscaster. Recently she has gotten active in a whole series of volunteer efforts including, it turns out, helping the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Some number of years ago Andrea and I reconnected and a couple of times a year we have lunch in Fredericksburg, VA, at the Olive Garden there (we remain a classy bunch). It occurred to Andrea that using the Fieldman School structure she could provide advice to some of the Lost Boys to organize in the US more effectively and thus I found myself unexpectedly in Richmond.
While I had a basic outline for the presentation prepared, I spent the first part of my session, Building a grassroots political organization: nuts and bolts, hearing each participant’s story to help me understand the context of what to focus on.
Each one was different but all had a common theme. Pushed out of their homes, forced to live in camps in Kenya or Ethiopia; attacked for racial reasons – Arab versus Black African or religious reasons – Islam versus Christian, or as pawns in a fight over natural resources and oil; they were uprooted, forced away from their families and eventually ended up in the US and were now focused on how to eventually return and bring a more robust civil society to Sudan, or at least South Sudan.
I am the last person to understand all of the complexities of that part of the world, but the stories I heard were heartbreaking and sad, the people sincere and passionate about the families they left behind and what they hoped to accomplish to the future.
I was honored that Andrea invited me and learned much from the interaction. Hopefully the advice I provided during that session helps at least a tiny bit. They have a long, difficult, and complex path; but I am sure they will travel it with great energy and determination.