Refugees from Sudan
at Mission College
For the first time in the history of Kwasizabantu Mission, four
Sudanese refugee students have enrolled at our Cedar College of Education. They have fled
from Sudan in order to obtain a Christian education; they hold on to the vision to return
to their country one day to help fellow Christian countrymen in the field of education.
Twenty-seven years of ongoing civil war between the Islamic government
in the northern parts of the country and the Christian resistance in the south, made it
impossible to get access to higher education in Sudan institutions, unless you submit to
the Islamic faith.
These students have experienced hard times; they receive very little
(if any) contact and moral support from their relatives in Sudan. Most of the times the
families are in a survival struggle themselves and are thankful that one of their members
have escaped trying to find a better future, hoping that they will return some day to
bring relief.
WILLIAM DENG AJANG
Was born on the first of January 1967 in Aweng, as part of the Dinka
tribe, in the southern part of Sudan. He escaped the forces which tried to convert him to
the Islamic holy laws and said that he sometimes still get nightmares of those times. He
has enrolled for a B.Ed. degree with Biology as a major subject.
MICHAEL DANIEL SOKIRI
As one of seven children, he was born in February 1975 in Sudan. To get
access to a Sudan University, he was forced to a two-year compulsory military
conscription, which was conducted in the battlefront at "rebel-controlled areas"
against the Christian resistance army. He could not take up the gun against his fellow
countrymen and fled the country to seek education elsewhere. He has enrolled for a B.Ed.
degree with Learner Support (Remedial Education) as the major focus.
ARCHIPPUS JOSEPH DATA
Born in Yei in April 1974, as the third of seven children, he fled
Sudan in 1990 and has since then no contact with his family, which he believes have fled
to Uganda. He was also recruited forcefully to fight against the ‘Christian
rebels’ and was severely injured in the process by police officers: suffered several
fractures, shattered cheekbone, ruptured eye socket and a broken leg.
He is now a committed student and has enrolled for a B.Ed degree with
Mathematics as major.
HILLARY LUKUDU DOMINIC JATTA
Born in Loka, Sudan, in September 1977. His father died when he was
very young, but the family persevered by the grace of God. He experienced arrest and
interrogation in the Islamic military barracks. By a miraculous intervention of one of the
security personnel, the persecution was ended and he managed to flee the country. He has
enrolled for a B.Ed. degree with biology as a major.
If you need more information, please contact Rev
PH Botha or Dr I Vermaak at:
Tel: +27 32 481 5508
e-mail: mail@cedar.org.za
Website: www.cce.org.za
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