Numbers, needs grow for Lost Boys of Sudan

By Stephen Buttry, World-Herald Staff Writer
From the Sunday World Herald

At the refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, Charles Makuei had a bed. In this land of plenty, he sleeps on the floor.

Omaha's refugee agencies need help to meet the needs of growing numbers of the Lost Boys of Sudan who are arriving in Omaha.

"The pace is frantic right now. We're desperate for help," said Barbara Alf, coordinator for the Southern Sudan Community Association, one of two local agencies sponsoring resettlement.

The agencies are seeking churches and other organizations willing to co-sponsor groups of the Lost Boys, who spent more than a dozen years wandering the plains, battlefields and refugee camps of east Africa.

The refugees, now young men in their late teens and 20s, need help finding housing and jobs. They need furniture and bedding. They need mentors to help them learn a new culture.

Heartland Refugee Resettlement ran out of donated furniture and bedding after eight men arrived Aug. 17 and eight more came Aug. 28. Each group lives in a rented house in north Omaha. One house has seven twin-bed mattresses. The other has three.

With the 21 Lost Boys who arrived in August and another who came last week, Omaha now has more than 50. Two more are coming Tuesday, and still more are expected later this month.