Guest Speaker: Daniel Majok Gai

Daniel Majok Gai the Executive Director of Project Education South Sudan visited our school today, November 6 to share about his foundation and also, his experience as a former Lost Boy. He and Salva Dut Ariik of A Long Walk to Water have similar stories. My students share a debrief of what they learned from Gai’s visit. Please, feel free to share comments below. 

Enjoy,

Deb Bass O’Brien

Jackson – Daniel Gai and Salva are both former Lost Boys. They are also both very kind people who think giving back is very important.

Daniel Gai was a kid who had to run away from his home, his family, and his education just for the chance of staying alive. Daniel went through many tiring and painful experiences, but eventually made it to America. In America Daniel got the chance to join an organization called Project Education South Sudan. This came to be his way of giving back to his home. He was lucky enough to get the chance to leave his country when it was in a hardship, and then gave them the chance of a better life when he had the chance to. Daniel Gai found his good deed of giving back by creating the chance for girls in South Sudan to have an education with the help of Project Education South Sudan.

Salva was able to give back with the organization Water for South Sudan. This also gave women and children education because they weren’t as busy collecting water.

Overall, both Daniel and Salva have given people in South Sudan the chance of education and a happy life.

Maya – The many ways United Nations (UN) supported Daniel Gai are quite extensive. For starters, Daniel was interviewed to make sure he was right for this opportunity. When the UN decided that Daniel was the man to send to the United States, a bountiful amount of gifts were given including plenty of food, clean and bottled water, brand new clothes and a new home, but the most important thing of all was an education. After a long flight (36 hours) to Denver, Colorado, Daniel arrived at his new home. Salva was quite similar to Daniel, he also had been interviewed, was given many things for his trip to Rochester, New York and was given a full education. Salva lived with a lovely family  They are two very lucky men who have given back to the world for everything that was given to them.

Gwen- Daniel Gai, and Salva Dut Ariik had very similar lives. They both had to flee the country because of a war that invaded their village. Salva was 11 and Daniel was 6. Walking for weeks and weeks they traveled to different refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. I thought it was very interesting that they both got selected to come to America and they found out when their name was put on a list. They talked about the long journey coming to America and how different it was from there life back in South Sudan. Overall it was very interesting that they had such similar stories.

Dharma- Do we all know our birthdays? No, Daniel Gai is one of the former lost boys and he does not know his birthday. His family was not educated so they did not know when he was born. He was six years old when he ran from the war. He was too young too. He couldn’t remember his birthday. He got a new birthday January 1st 1981. Everyone who did not know their birthdays got the birthday January 1st. Daniel Gai stopped celebrating his “birthday” because that was not his actual birthday, it is just a date someone gave to him. How would it feel every year not knowing when your actual birthday is? That’s why everyone needs to be educated in South Sudan.

Ian-

Can you imagine running from home and from everything you love and have? Daniel Majok Gai ran away from home  at age 6. He ran away from the war and from his life. He fled to Ethiopia and stayed at a refugee camp. From here he learned to get along and survive at the camp. Daniel still had no idea where his family was. He had no idea what was happening outside the camp. He started having dreams of going to America so he tried to learn English.

Azzie –School has never appeared to me as a necessity or something that could affect my life tremendously. I finally came to realize how important it is when a brave man named Daniel Gai came to share to me and others his perspective.As Daniel spoke I began to take in everything he was saying.Such as…

• Not every women in sudan has no chance at all to go to school.
• A plain #2 pencil costs 20$.
• Public school teachers do not get paid.
• For school they would sit on the ground and use their finger as a writing utensil and the  ground as a substitute for paper.

All these aching comments showed me how lucky I am to be in school and have an education.

Being uneducated in life is sad. Daniel said something that surprised me, he said my parents did not know my birthday or any other birthday because they were uneducated.Not only that but they did not know how to read and write.

Daniel also states that communication is important. People around the world all  have different languages and that is one way to communicate but to develop on that reading and writing is a way to communicate because it is a way to connect with the world.

I have found that being educated is important because our minds are what develop the world. If we were all uneducated, What would the world be like?

Daniel then speaks about his family and the adventure he had to find his family. I’m ecstatic that I have an educated and beautiful loving family but if they were uneducated I would do anything to help them be educated just as Daniel did with the women of South Sudan.

Brandon – I wonder what it would be like to travel several hours on foot in the hot sun to go to school, just school. I would imagine this is the dream of many young girls in South Sudan, and probably the average part of a day for many boys in South Sudan in fact only 7% of the girls in South Sudan go to school. Most of the girls stay home and learn how to cook and get water. And the unfairness that would be the rejection of school, even with the opportunity to have an education. How long would it take to make it through to the next grade? What education would we consider the Southern Sudan schools to teach and what can we expect from them when we give them opportunities to be successful? It is a difficult choice to make: Should I spend and/or donate my money to give some kid(s) a chance to get an education and if they do will they make a difference in some area of the world and which one? Why do I care about someone else? I have always felt that my education is a very big part of my being. My intelligence is a big part of who I am as a person. I would want somebody even if that person later would not like me, to give me a chance to get an education and make a difference, even a little one for the better future of the world.

Talmage– Cattle is an important part of life in a lot of cultures, especially the people of South Sudan. In South Sudan in order to get a wife you have to have cows, there’s also no such thing as dating so if you liked a girl and wanted to marry her you needed to give her father cows as a dowry. Cows are also a very important part of money to sell milk and they are a good source of food from milk and sometimes meat. As you see cows can help the people in South Sudan in multiple ways and cows need water so if there’s no good water there’s no cows.

Ellis- It is so interesting how they both found out where their families where and they went to visit them. I thought it was cool how Daniel went back to South Sudan after they could come to the US. I think that he did this so that he could help South Sudan. Salva went back so that he could help to get water for the rest of South Sudan.

Vivian– Daniel Majok Gai is the founder for Project South Sudan, this organization gives education to young girls in South Sudan. When Daniel was a child he didn’t get the opportunity to have an education until he arrived to Ethiopia and started his education there at the age of ten in a refugee camp.