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Walk It Out
Publisher: Cokesbury: Walk It Out: Together In the Way of Jesus. The students learn how methods of walking, marching and dancing were critical in gaining understanding, effecting change, and moving forward in faith, in self, in community and in God. Lessons are inspired by those who walked, marched and danced to freedom: demonstrated in the Civil Rights Movement, the toyi-toyi dance in South Africa, and children in the 21st century walking-it-out with an iPod.
Help children “walk-it-out” by learning about the Lost Boys of Sudan who walked for safety and life.
Story: The Lost Boys of Sudan
Since 1983, nearly five million people have been displaced by the civil war in the Sudan. Among these are at least 20,000 children, mostly boys, between 7 and 17 years of age who were separated from their families. Beginning in 1987, thousands of these "Lost Boys" of Sudan were driven from their homes and trekked enormous distances over a vast unforgiving wilderness, seeking refuge from forcible conscription….
Factions began to attack peaceful villages, kidnapping young males to use as cannon fodder in battle zones or to walk through minefields. Fearing they would be targeted as potential combatants, many boys left their villages for refugee camps in Ethiopia…. They lost everything en route to soldiers, swindlers or bandits. Many fell victim to lethal diseases. Others were so weakened by hunger and lack of sleep that they could go no further and sat down by the roadside, prey for lions and other wild animals.
The survivors who reached refugee camps in Ethiopia began to lead relatively peaceful lives again. But this was not to last. Following a change in government in Ethiopia in May 1991, the Sudanese youths were forced to flee again. This time the journey occurred during heavy rains, and many perished crossing the swollen rivers. Hungry, frightened and weakened by sleeplessness and disease, they made their way to camps in Sudan, where they received help from the International Committee of the Red Cross. From there, they then traveled on foot to safety in northern Kenya.
http://www.churchworldservice.org/betterworld2/lost-boys4.html