A memorial service for Sudanese Lost Boy, Majok Thiik Madut

This is such a sad story. Majok Thiik Madut was shot and killed while waiting for a bus on a street corner in Cleveland. Madut was one of The Lost Boys.

In 1987, a civil war drove an estimated twenty thousand young boys from their families and villages in Southern Sudan. Most no more than six or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction into slavery and the northern army. They walked a thousand miles through lion and crocodile country, eating mud to stave off thirst and starvation. Wandering for years, half of them died before reaching the Kenyan refugee camp, Kakuma. The survivors of this tragic exodus became known to the world as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.”

Yes, He survived war, wild animals, thirst, and has come thousands of miles from what he knew of home, just to be shot down on a street corner. Some random, senseless horror visited upon someone just trying to find their way in the world.

He made it out of Darfur.

I worry about the people of the Darfur Region.

I wonder what is it that I can do.

I was proud to know that there were young men here in Cleveland making a way for themselves. Having a 'good life', a 'better life'.

Bitter pill knowing that he was less safe in our city than he was in Darfur.