We and many others have been deeply moved by your plan to travel to South Sudan to conduct research and advocacy into the common practice of inter-ethnic child abduction. We have learned that on October 3, 2007, gunman of the Murie ethnic group seized three year old Yar Mading and her 18 month old sister Ajak, your nieces, in order to raise them as future brides for the kidnappers’ children. The gunman killed the girls’ great grandmother and seriously wounded their grandmother.
You have made this tragedy into a catalyst for a human rights campaign. Your research and public exposure of this practice in South Sudan, including a meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir when he was in Washington, have now led you to travel into this chaotic area to pursue your investigation.
Your saga is made all the more compelling by the fact that you were himself the victim of child abduction, having been kidnapped at age 6 and turned into a boy soldier by members of the southern Sudan Liberation Army.
We salute you for your commitment, your strength, and most of all, for your undaunted confidence that great changes start in the hearts of individual citizens. For that, of course, is how heart energy always works—quietly, and with complete confidence. You are an example to all who know you that, indeed, we are the ones we have been waiting for to end oppression and injustice. And this is exactly the work of the Sullivan Ballou Fund—to seek out models like you of the power of heart energy and to transmit their inspirational message to the wider community.
We wish you godspeed on your journey. We are delighted that this award will, in, a small way, help make it possible. Please let us know the results of your trip. You are a special person.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members