Alumni Dinner Raises $7200
Inaugural One World Dinner Supports Wadeng Wings of Hope
Jacob Deng accepts a cheque for $7200 that will go toward the construction of a school in Sudan. 
While in South Sudan to get his school project started, Jacob Deng met George Clooney. The actor was in Juba to facilitate the beginning of a referendum and Jacob gave him a copy of "A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk", a story based on Deng's life by Nova Scotia author, Jan Coates.
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Jacob Deng was just seven years old in 1989 when soldiers stormed into his remote village in Southern Sudan and started to shoot all the men. Terrified, he and his 14-year-old cousin fled under cover of night, begging for food as they walked for more than three months to reach what then passed for safety: a crowded Ethiopian refugee camp where the standard wake-up call was 4 am explosions and boys from his village were shot for sport.
One of at least 20,000 boys now known as “The Lost Boys” of Sudan, Deng survived through sheer determination, eventually making his way to a Kenyan refugee camp, and from there to Nova Scotia. When he arrived in Halifax in 2003 he had two dreams: to get an education and to help his people.
Deng achieved his first dream in 2010 when he graduated from Saint Mary’s with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. The second began in earnest in 2006 when he returned to the Southern Sudan with funds raised through Wadeng Wings of Hope, a charity he founded in 2004 to raise money to build a primary school in his home village.
The first of the “Lost Boys” to return to his village and the only boy in his family who has grown to be a man, Jacob Deng was the special guest speaker for Saint Mary’s inaugural One World Alumni Dinner sponsored by TD Insurance Meloche Monnex at this year’s Homecoming.
“What this young man has accomplished for his community is inspiring,” says Scott Grant, Senior Manager, Affinity Market Group, TD Insurance Meloche Monnex. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to come together with Saint Mary’s alumni to raise money for such a worthwhile cause.”
More than 170 people attended the diner in the Loyola Conference Centre, raising $7200 for Wadeng Wings of Hope.
For more information on Wadeng Wings of Hope check out their website.
This page last modified Friday, 30-Sep-2011 12:29:52 ADT