Walk to Help Sudan

(reposted from http://pacodes.blogspot.com/)

 Patrick Springer, The Forum www.in-forum.com

Published Thursday, September 25, 2008


Supporters will walk from Fargo to Moorhead on Oct. 4 to raise money to help build a community library in a remote area that once was home to local “Lost Boys” from southern Sudan.

The event, which involves a walk of about three miles, will raise money for PACODES, a local nonprofit organization that is working to build a library in Panyijiar County, home to about 120,000 people.

“The importance of this event is to raise money and awareness of the need for services in southern Sudan,” said Justin Machien Luoi of Fargo, one of the event’s organizers.

PACODES has raised almost $30,000 of the estimated $100,000 that will be needed to build the library, including transportation and logistic costs.

Donors already have given more than 50,000 books for the library, and two organizations – Books for Africa and Better World Books – have pledged to help move the books to the remote area.


The walk route begins near North Dakota State University and ends at Concordia College, a route that underscores organizers’ hopes that students from Fargo-Moorhead colleges and universities will take part.

“We’re going to try to organize students at all three campuses,” said Roy Hammerling, a religion professor at Concordia and another project organizer. Fifty Concordia students are active in helping PACODES.

College students in Chicago and Peoria, Ill., participated in earlier fundraising events.

Organizers hope to start construction on the library during the upcoming dry season, which is from November to May.

During the wet times the rest of the year, heavy rains and flooding make transportation difficult or impossible, but some construction work is possible, Luoi said. He is one of an estimated 1,000 in the Sudanese community in Fargo-Moorhead, including perhaps 300 “Lost Boys,” refugees forced to flee by civil war in the 1990s.

If you go

    - What: 2008 walkSUDAN fundraiser to build a library in Sudan

    - When: Registration from 8:30 to 9 a.m. Oct. 4,; walk from 9:15 to about 11 a.m.

    - Where: Walk starts at Roosevelt Park, 10th Street and 12th Avenue North, Fargo. Walk ends at Concordia College bell tower.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522

Rasmussen College to Participate in Walksudan- Fargo

(reposted from http://pacodes.blogspot.com/)

 

9/11/2008

Rasmussen College in Fargo will join the Walksudan-Fargo. Rasmussen is a business college dedicated to educating business leaders. The school will encourage its students to participate in the Walksudan – Fargo. For those who do not know, Walksudan is a peoples based movement started by Sean Fahey and Jeremiah Hammerling of the Endlesseye Film NPO to raise awareness for Panyijiar County and Southern Sudan Community Development. The walk will occur in Fargo North Dakota on October 4^th, 2008.

In this exercise, interested people are invited to pledge their feet as well as their financial support for PACODES’ Library project and Southern Sudan development.

The walk is meant to imitate the journeys of the Lost Boys in the jungles of East Africa after forceful displacement from Sudan at younger age in the late 1980s. It is also meant to support Lost Boys charitable organizations and in particular PACODES.

Walksudan began last summer in Peoria and Chicago Illinois. This fall it begins in Fargo and will extend to other cities. To get people to walk, PACODES leaders and affiliates visit schools and public places to give directions and sign up interested people to join the walk.

It is in that capacity that through the help of Abraham Bidhal Gatwich an accounting & Finance student at Rasmussen College, also a PACODES member and Beth Marie - a Librarian at the College that on September 9^th Machien J. Luoi was invited to present to students on PACODES, Panyijiar Library Project and Walksudan- Fargo. The presentation included watching PACODES’ Walksudan video, PowerPoint on PACODES’ Library project and Walksudan. Students, teachers and workers at the college attended the presentation. The presentation took place in the morning and evening. At the end of the day it was clear that Rasmussen students and faculty members were interested and will join the Walksudan – Fargo. They took sign up sheets, pledge sheets and maps of the Walksudan route.

PACODES’ members hope Walksudan Fargo will help “raise money and friends” to support the organization’s mission. Proceeds from Walksudan- Fargo will go towards building the Panyijiar Library.

By PACODES

walkSudan - Fargo

(reposted from http://pacodes.blogspot.com/)

Monday, September 22, 2008

walkSUDAN

I just finished interviewing Roy for the High Plains Article on the walkSUDAN event coming up on Saturday, Oct. 4th. Of course we've heard of the Lost Boys - they went to Oak Grove with Erik. It was horrible - boys as young as 4 and 5 forced to walk thousands of miles to get help. Civil war, death, loss. But then what? One of them, Machien went to Fargo South and played soccer with Roy's son, Jeremiah, my nephew. Roy helped Machien get into Concordia, where he's a professor. Roy taught a class called Celtic Christianity, which Machien took. They studied the book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization." When Rome was falling, the Irish saved the precious manuscripts and took them back to Ireland, so civilization was saved through these manuscripts. Roy posed the question: If the US is the modern-day Rome, who's the modern-day Ireland? Machien came up to Roy after class and answered, "Sudan." So began the journey to build the first library in the south of Sudan, where there is none.

Jeremiah started walkSUDAN to raise awareness for the Lost Boys and Sudan, and to raise money to build the library. Our whole family is going to walk (and donate money). I wouldn't miss this for the world - as many Lost Boys as can come will be there. A woman who walked in one of the other walkSUDAN's said the boys chanted (I personally can't wait to hear that). Why get excited? I have no idea, but I really care, and want to help spread the word that this great event will be here in less than two weeks.

If you want more information, you can go to www.pacodes.org. Roy and Machien started that organization right here in Fargo. Who knew? I didn't know, and Roy's family! But now I'm educating myself, and I'm so proud of this good work going on right here in our beautiful community. Why should we care about something happening halfway around the world? Roy told a good story from a Pakistani mystic poet - the poet said that if East and West look into a mirror, they see their opposites, but they are still part of the same body. What affects one of us affects all of us - that is why we should care.

What's neat is that they're starting at Roosevelt Park at 8:30 (right by NDSU), then walking over to MSUM, and ending up at Concordia, joining all three colleges in a show of unity and connection. I don't know - this whole thing is just making me all warm inside, and I can feel the excitement building. I'm going to be there - come join me!

Susie Ekberg

Susie Ekberg

I'm a writer, interested in all things spiritual and enlightening. I have a newspaper column, do public speaking, and help people become empowered. I love communication and discussions - they help us grow and expand. What do YOU think?

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