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"God Grew Tired of Us" film features "Lost Boy" CWS resettled
John Bul Dau
Photo: National Geographic Films/Newmarket
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John Bul Dau, a Sudanese "Lost Boy" who resettled in the United States under the auspices of Church World Service in 2001, stars in the new film "God Grew Tired of Us," scheduled for commercial release in theaters nationwide beginning in January 2007.
Nicole Kidman narrates this 2006 Sundance Festival award winner about the 25,000 unaccompanied children and youths who fled the slaughter of Sudan's second civil war in 1987, traveled together on foot for five years, and against all odds crossed into Kenya.
The film meets Dau and two other "Lost Boys" in Kakuma refugee camp in 2001 and documents their journey from Sudan to Kakuma to America, including their adjustment to a new culture and their work on behalf of the family and friends they left behind.
Dau, now 32, lives in Syracuse, New York, where First Presbyterian Church of Skaneatles and the Refugee Resettlement Program of the Interreligious Council of Central New York helped him locate and furnish an apartment, access medical care, find work, further his schooling, and in general understand American culture.
He was fortunate to locate his parents and siblings in Uganda and Sudan, and raised the funds necessary to bring his mother and a sister to live with him in Syracuse in 2004.
Now married to Martha, who was one of the "Lost Girls" brought to America, Dau is founder of the American Care for Sudan Foundation, raising funds to build the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, the first medical clinic in Duk County where Dau lived as a boy. And he recently was appointed Director of the Sudan Project for Direct Change, an organization established to assist the orphans and other vulnerable children of Africa.
Presented by Newmarket Films, "God Grew Tired of Us" is a National Geographic Films/LBS Production. For more information, including a preview of the film and a growing schedule of openings, visit www.godgrewtiredofus.com
To learn more about how you can help welcome refugees resettling in your community, visit www.churchworldservice.org/Immigration/help.html
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