UNCA to Host Program on "The Lost Boys of the Sudan"

UNC Asheville will host a program on "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at UNCA’s Owen Conference Center. The program is free and open to the public.

Fleeing the violence and bloodshed of Sudan’s civil war, thousands of children, as young as four years old, trekked across the hostile East African desert. Many died of starvation, thirst or were attacked by wild animals. Those who survived became refugees in the camps of Ethiopia and Kenya. Relief workers named these children the "Lost Boys" after Peter Pan’s lost boys who clung together to escape a hostile adult world. "Lost Boys" Abraham Yel, Simon Deng and John Dut will describe their ordeal and their search for a new future in the United States.

The program is sponsored by UNCA’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and co-sponsored by UNCA’s Africana Studies Program, Department of Sociology and student chapter of Amnesty International.

For more information, call UNCA’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at 828/232-5110.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Afaf Omer, UNCA Assistant Professor of Sociology, 828/251-6979
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526