SWU News:

September 5, 2006

"Lost boy" finds mother

By JON ROBERTSON

jon@dailyjm.com

CENTRAL — He traveled 1,000 miles across Africa with nothing but a pair of shorts.

He became one of the 4,000 young men to leave his homeland of civil unrest and start a new life in the United States.

He earned success as a college student, receiving praise from his classmates, the media and others in the community for being a role model for those persevering through tough times.

Now, along with his already impressive list of accomplishments, Abraham Deng can add one more achievement in his journey.

He got to see his mother again.

In one of the most remarkable "how I spent my summer" stories, Deng used his education at Southern Wesleyan University to heal his family members in their time of medical and spiritual need during a mission trip to Ethiopia.

"All my family members were crying," Deng said of his family reunion, which was the first time he saw them in 19 years. "My mother said, 'You coming here is like a dream to me.'"

Deng, 25, was born in Duk, a small Christian village in Sudan. At age 6, while he was at a cattle camp away from his home, the village was destroyed as the result of an attack from Islamic groups. Separated from his family, Deng and 20,000 other boys fled into the Ethiopian wilderness.

Finding a temporary home at a refugee camp in Ethiopia in 1987, Deng relocated to another camp in Kenya, where he stayed until 2001.

With the help of the United Nations, in conjunction with United States government, Deng was selected to make the move to America, becoming one of the famed "Lost Boys" who were given another chance at a happy life.

First moving to Florida, Deng started his education in Atlanta. He knew his father did not survive the violent conflict in his homeland, but he still did not know the fate of his mother, as well as other immediate relatives.

"When I was in Kenya, I thought there was nobody else," Deng said of his family whereabouts. "I thought I was just by myself."

A fellow Lost Boy living in Virginia, however, told Deng his mother, Mary Aduk Mayen, was in fact alive, living in an Ethiopian refugee camp called Fugnido with his brother and three sisters. Deng didn't believe his mother was alive, while his mother felt the same way about her son's fate, but both were proven wrong after a telephone conversation.

"I could not believe it," he said of the conversation. "She said, 'Are you my son?'"

"Yes, mom, I am," he replied.

"My son is now alive," she exclaimed.

Though elated that his mom and relatives were still alive, Deng was worried about the conditions facing them in Ethiopia. In Fugnido, which contains 32,000 refugees, there is only one clinic to support their medical needs. The clinic itself is a poor facility that doesn't even contain basic equipment like a microscope.

When Deng moved to Central in 2004 to become a pre-med student at SWU, he established a mission to go back to his homeland and help his people during their ongoing time of need. This goal was further motivated by alerts from his brother-in-law, a pastor near the refugee camp who told him things were not getting any better.

"I knew the conditions," Deng said. "It was getting worse."

With the help of SWU, whose members started the campaign "Abraham's Dream" to provide funding, Deng left the United States on May 15, not to return for two months and two weeks. "In my country, there's a great need for doctors," he said, explaining his desire to provide medical assistance as well as emotional support for his family. I have the compassion to help other people."

First stopping in Addis Ababa, a city close to Fugnido, Deng faced immediate obstacles. Despite vaccinations in the U.S., Deng contracted pneumonia and malaria, and experienced low blood pressure. Though he was able to recover with the help of a nearby doctor, Deng's worries for the trip from Addis Ababa to Fugnido were heightened, as civil unrest made Ethiopian bus travel unsafe.

On May 26, however, Deng made it to Fugnido, welcomed by a celebration from his family. "My mom was shivering when she was waiting for me in her small poor compound," he said. "As I got into the compound, she lifted me up together with my sister and both rushed into the house; my mother was hugging me with a lot of tears on her face and I was crying, crying, crying."

The happiness gave way to harsh realities when Deng learned first-hand how bad things were. His mother, for example, suffered from chronic malaria, typhoid, an intestinal worm and a lumbar inflammation, a growth over her kidney the size of a rolled-up fist.

Until Deng arrived, however, she was unaware that any of these conditions existed. She wasn't alone, as many in Fugnido went day-to-day with unknown illnesses.

Not only were medical facilities under par. Physicians with little or no experience made decisions that proved to be counterproductive. Another relative of Deng's was given medication to treat an intestinal worm. The worm problem didn't go away, but he experienced heavy periods of sleeping. Since he couldn't read the label, he had no idea he had been given sleeping pills rather than worm medication.

With urgency, Deng consulted ZOA, the healthcare agency that oversees refugees. "We told them that we have to give them some health of help the refugees," he said. ZOA responded, finding accurate diagnoses for many ill occupants in Fugnido and providing them with a plan for appropriate treatment.

Local churches also chipped in for help, as Deng worked with officials to design programs for orphans and handicapped refugees. "They want to give them good training," Deng said of church support for orphans, who will benefit from school supplies and a proper education.

One of the biggest success stories in Deng's trip involved his brother-in-law, Majok Adial. For over a year, Adial underwent periods of appetite loss and sleep depravation while a growth developed in his bladder. By the time Deng arrived in Ethiopia, those around Adial were certain he was on the verge of death.

Deng took Adial to Addis Ababa, where a doctor told them the growth was a bladder stone that called for operation as soon as possible.

Three days later, doctors operated on Adial, removing the stone and determining later that it was not cancerous. "It was about the size of a tennis ball," said Deng, who has a picture of the stone.

Now back in the U.S., Deng is continuing his education as a senior at SWU. He plans to graduate in the spring and go on to medical school.

Though he hopes to come back to Africa in 2008, his relatives have alternate hopes.

"She wants to come to America," he said of his mother, who is taking proper medication with the help of her son's guidance. "She told me, 'why don't we go together?'"

"I told her, 'Maybe one day, you will come.'"