Realising the Dream : Journey of a Lost Boy

Akoi Manyiel Guong is the founder of the Seed of Hope Foundation(SeedHF), an organisation established to support the building of health and education facilities in his home village of Patuenoi in the state of Jonglei,South Sudan. A member of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia,Akoi has a special interest in Sudanese youth in both South Australia and South Sudan. The warm, still night was shattered by the sound of gun shots. I woke up with a gasp. Womens voices shrilled the alarm: Wui-Wuuui! Wui-Wuuui! Wui-Wuuui! Government soldiers were attacking our village!The whole village was lit up in fl ames. I could hear people shouting and screaming. The panicked cattle were crashing through their pens, bellowing with fear. My mates and I fl ed swiftly into the surrounding forest. Soon we were far away. The shouts and screams and gunshots faded into the background, but still we continued to run, frantically, blindly,into the night. So begins the journey of 10-year-old Dinka boy, Akoi Manyiel Guong. From the warmth and security of his family, hefl ees to Ethiopia where he joins thousands of other boysthe Sudanese lost boysbefore becoming a child soldier, a fugitive, and ultimately a refugee seeking safety on the other side of the world. In the course of his journey, Akoi loses everything and yet, at the same time, finds his destiny.