Help Offer Primary Education for Ariang is raising money to build a primary school in Ariang, a village near the town of Gogrial, Bhar El Ghazal region, South Sudan.
"We have listened to the elders. We have listened to the children. We have listened to the mothers in the village, to everybody. Their message is ringing in my mind and it is now our responsibility. And that means here in the States, I have a lot of work to do."
~ Gabriel Bol Deng, excerpt from rebuildinghopesudan.org YouTube video
HOPE for Ariang is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities to the war-affected children of Sudan. It seeks to restore hope and promote peace through education. One of its priorities is to promote girls' education in Sudan.
To assist existing educational systems in the Sudan
To help build schools in Sudan
To enhance understanding of democratic principles fundamental to achieving lasting peace in the Sudan
To encourage the growth of civil society, including capacity-building, so people can become self-reliant
To advance people's ability to realize their full human potential and development
Gabriel Bol Deng, Founder and Director of Hope for Ariang, fled Sudan as a child of 10 years of age when his village was attacked by North Sudan Arab militiamen. He fled with other children whose villages had also been attacked, traveled across the Nile River and the Sahara Desert for months. They finally reached Ethiopia, where they were safe, until political upheaval there meant that Gabriel and the others he had traveled with had to flee again. They made their way to Kenya and a refugee camp there. The primitive education provided in the Kenyan camp gave Gabriel hope for his future and set him on a journey that brought him back to his village armed with the conviction that education was the real way to bring peace to his village and his country.
Learn more about Gabriel Bol Deng's flight from his village of Ariang, his journey to the United States and his hopes for the future and for Ariang here.