At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.
In 2003, former "Lost Boy" of Sudan, Salva Dut, founded Water for South Sudan in Rochester, NY. Salva's story began in 1974 when he was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to a tribe of Dinka people. When Salva was 11 years old, in 1985, Sudan was wracked by the Second Sudanese Civil War.
In January, 2002, Salva Dut arrived in Sudan to seek out a man he hadn’t seen for 16 years—his father. All that time, Salva thought his father had died in the war. Their reunion, he says, was emotional and wonderful. But his father was seriously ill, suffering from water-borne parasites and disease.
Salva Dut, a former Lost Boy of Sudan, founded a nonprofit, Water for South Sudan, in 2003 to provide clean, safe water and improve hygiene and sanitation in South Sudan. His story became the inspiration for a popular book for young readers, A Long Walk to Water.
In 1985, Salva, then just 11 years old, was one of the 17,000 “Lost Boys of Sudan” who fled that country’s southern region during Sudan’s two-decade civil war. During that flight, a significant number of the Lost Boys perished from hunger, thirst, disease as well as wild animal and military attacks.
South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit has concluded a working state visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the invitation of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, with both leaders reaffirming their commitment to deepen bilateral relations.