CREATING PATHWAYS TO OPPORTUNITY

Adeng Maluk Leek

Lost Girl of Sudan on Road to Becoming Computer Information Specialist

Adeng Maluk Leek’s tale is nothing short of harrowing.  In 1988, she was just seven years old when her village in the Sudan was brutally attacked.  She watched with horror as friends and family were raped, abused and killed.  Tragically, Adeng lost track of her parents but somehow managed to survive by foraging in the wilderness and streets for four years.  She was constantly hungry, thirsty and fighting danger at every turn. Adeng, miraculously, found safe haven at a refugee camp in Kenya in 1992, where she remained for eight years without knowing whether her parents were alive and if so, their whereabouts.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees interviewed this “Lost Girl of Sudan” and made it possible for her to enter the United States in 2000.  Adeng’s tenacity to learn and make a new life for herself allowed her to graduate high school and pursue a B.S. in international business and management at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Although she receives some financial support from Bethany Christian Services and also takes advantage of school loans, she works on campus to put herself through college.  Her scholarship from the Western Union Foundation helps offset her expenses, and gives her all the more reason to hope for a brighter future.

To Adeng’s great joy, she learned that her parents also escaped from Sudan and are still living in Africa.  Adeng hasn’t seen them in over 18 years, but it is her fervent hope that someday soon they will be reunited.   For now, this determined woman knows that the surest road to independence is completing her college education.