I just spent an extraordinary three days at a conference with members of the South Sudanese diaspora, women and men who used to live there and who are now in North America. Almost all of them have troubling stories of having fled from violence, and some of them are part of the estimated 20,000 “lost boys” who left the areas of conflict in the late 1980’s.
Trauma Counseling and PeaceMaking
Five Talents is fortunate to work with the American Friends of the Episcopal Church in the Sudans (AFRECS), who put on the conference to work on solutions to the current-day challenges in Sudan and South Sudan. Five Talents also recently convened a series of meetings in South Sudan with AFRECS and other partners from around the world. We are excited that we will be able help start a new program there, and it appears that in addition to micro-enterprise development, the program will include trauma counseling and peacemaking as well.
A woman from South Sudan at the conference said, “We have one of the richest countries on earth, but we are bound up. One day we won’t look for anything from the U.S. We will give food and other things to people around the world.”
Despite the great challenges ahead for South Sudan, we have reason to celebrate this new program and to hope for the future. Learn more about the Journey of Hope.
Until next Monday, blessings be with you,
Dale Stanton-Hoyle,
Executive Director