Hope Across Borders: Sudan's Buckeye Clinic

Six-year-olds Bol and Jok were tending livestock just outside their village in Piol, South Sudan when they heard gunshots. The two hid from the threatening sound, and instinctively fled, not knowing if their family or fellow villagers were safe. They found other orphaned boys, and together they faced a long, dangerous journey to a refugee camp in Ethiopia as “The Lost Boys.” The Lost Boys encountered continuous hostile violence from Sudan’s government troops, and were also challenged by wild animals. “When we saw a lion, we all climbed in a tree and made noise until it went away.” The boys ate whatever they could find in nearby vegetation while the hope of safety kept them going.For four years, Bol and Jok stayed at the camp in Ethiopia. The whereabouts of their family was still unknown and when Ethiopia began its own civil war, the two moved on to another camp in Kenya. They stayed there for ten years, but life was no less difficult. They received food rations for fifteen days, “but really it was only enough to last us ten days,” says Bol. “Those last few days we had no food. No one was cooking over a fire and people were sad and hungry. We called them black days.”Bol and Jok, among 20,000 boys displaced during the Second Sudanese Civil War, traveled a total of 1,500 miles by foot on their journey to seek refuge. For Bol and Jok, hearing the United States would help them resettle was the news they had been hoping for after 14 years of struggle.Arriving in Nashville, Tennessee, Bol was astounded by the bustling, modern city around him. “It was crazy. We had never seen anything like it before...I remember when someone explained to me that ice cream was food. That blew my mind.”Bol and Jok attended junior college in Nashville and each worked two jobs. Bol began pursuing artwork- something he did to pass the time in Kenya with whatever materials he could find. He began drawing and painting scenes of his journey to show others, and it became a sort of therapy for him to process his past. The two moved to Columbus after a few years in Nashville to begin their higher education at Ohio State University; Jok studying International Relations and Bol, Digital Art.In Columbus, Bol and Jok met Steve Walker, the Director of Refugee Services at the time. It was after a visit back to their village in Piol in 2007 that Bol and Jok reached out to Steve to help them with their vision. Their village’s conditions were bleak, and many children were at risk of deadly diseases. Bol and Jok wanted to build a clinic, and Steve began assisting with fundraising efforts right away. In 2009, the clinic was built. The village chiefs so loved the concepts of luck and good fortune surrounding the Ohio State Buckeye that the facility was given its name, The Buckeye Clinic.The Buckeye Clinic is already vaccinating the village children but hopes to further their services by hiring medical staff to care for pregnant women and expand health education and promotion. Bol and Jok’s journey of perseverance and inspiring faith in a better future is a reminder to us all that from struggle, arises strength and the drive to make a difference. 

To help The Buckeye Clinic, visit their website at http://southsudanclinic.org.You can see some of Bol’s artwork at www.bolaweng.com. Written by Resettlement Intern Kelsey Ullom