'U' helps 'Lost Boys'
find new way of life

Photo by G.L. Kohuth Amanda Audo, an MSU sophomore in zoology from Washington (Mich.), joins Sudanese refugee Phillip Makur Dau for an evening of music. Dau is one of about 150 refugees, also known as the "Lost Boys," who have settled in the Lansing area.

By Tom Oswald

MSU, along with several partners, is using a federal grant to help a large group of Sudanese refugees, known as the "Lost Boys," not only to acclimate themselves to their new life in America but also to deal with their past.

The $200,000 grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement will fund a number of projects, including the use of art and music therapy as a means of helping the refugees come to terms with the experiences that led them to the United States.

"Lost Boys" is the name given to a group of nearly 10,000 boys and girls who fled their native Sudan in the early 1990s, seeking refuge from the country's often-brutal civil war. Parentless and homeless for five years, they walked nearly 1,000 miles before arriving at a Kenyan refugee camp.

Enduring attacks, bandits, lions, starvation and other atrocities, the youth formed a family structure with the older ones acting as parents, often carrying the younger ones in their arms.

About 150 refugees have settled in the mid-Michigan area and MSU, along with Catholic Social Services of Lansing/St. Vincent Home, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan and Ingham County 4-H, has been helping them get settled in their new land.

The partners have been involved in a number of projects with the refugees, some of which are designed to help them become acclimated to their new surroundings and others that try to determine what made this unique group of refugees so resilient.

The new grant will fund several projects, including new methods of helping the refugees cope with their past. Among these methods: art therapy.

"When they were in the camps, many of the young people drew pictures of their experiences," said Nelson Graves of Catholic Social Services of Lansing/St. Vincent Home. "Through art they can share some of the trauma they went through. Maybe they can't put it into words, but they can put it into pictures."

The grant also will fund the hiring of more interpreters and provide training for people in the community who want to be involved.

"The research that is being facilitated by MSU Outreach Partnerships is taking us to people who can support the Sudanese youth and with whom we can share the knowledge we've gained," said Annette Abrams, director of MSU Outreach Partnerships. "This is a dynamic combination of research and service, which benefits all concerned."

A number of MSU students and faculty members are involved in the refugee project.
Students from the College of Arts and Letters' ROIAL (Residential Option in Arts and Letters) program are tutoring some of the young refugees.

Eric Fretz, visiting assistant professor of American thought and language, has students working with refugees who are planning to go to college.

Some faculty members, such as Tom Luster, professor of family and child ecology, are serving as mentors to the refugees.

Luster said that despite the differences between their old world and this new one, the refugees are adapting with few difficulties.

"I continue to be amazed at what they've done," he said. "They tell me that after what they went through in Africa, this is not that hard."

Other funding for this project comes from MSU Outreach Partnerships and a grant from FACT (Families and Communities Together), an MSU-based coalition that links University researchers and resources with community partners.

Copyright 2001 Michigan State University Division of University Relations.