By Daniel Mueller

For the Herald

July is the month where we celebrate American Independence, a holiday celebrating freedom, sacrifice, unity and community, which have made us uniquely American for 240 years. We celebrate the good life we have and the American Dream we continue to chase or have achieved. What is much harder to celebrate or remember is the struggles and difficulties generations before us overcame to reach the point we are at today. Our families may have come to America on a ship long ago with little more than a few possessions, their skills, and dreams of a better life.

July is also Independence Day for a country much newer, only five years old, South Sudan. And similar to those family members who helped found and create our nation, South Sudan is starting out with little more than their dream for a better life. It is a country which divided from Sudan because of its many differences, an Arab-Muslim north and a Christian African south, as well as competing tribes, which has resulted in many years of civil war. Now South Sudan faces the same challenges of our Founding Fathers, how to create a nation from farmers, who were forced to become soldiers. Last month, one of Austin’s refugee leaders, Santino Deng, returned to South Sudan to help train future leaders who will possibly become the George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s of South Sudan’s history.

South Sudan is at an important transitional time in its history. Most of the country are traumatized by 22 years of civil war, the economy though rich with oil resources and grazing land is not helping the majority of the people, and even though 67 percent of the country are kids less than 40 percent of them are able to get an education. It is into this situation that Santino Deng went with Dau Jok, the founder of the Dut Jok Youth Foundation. Their weeklong gathering of 75 male and female youth leaders from across 64 tribes and the whole of South Sudan was entitled, Empower the Youth. They had presentations, discussions, debates and personal sharing on such subjects as peace, becoming a good leader, good governance, human rights and finding your goals and dreams.

This is just the beginning of this important work of preparing the leaders who can potentially stabilize, unify and lead South Sudan into a successful future. Independence Day is dawning as I write this and there is little celebration instead anxiety and gunfire which has led to more fighting, but the youth who make up the majority of the country are that bright ray of hope. If you would like to know more about the work, you can look online at dutjokyouthfoundation.org. Be Involved by corresponding with one of the 75 youth leaders, to offer encouragement, advise and a friendship in their important journey away from violence towards peace, dreams and a brighter future. America is looked at as an example of independence, freedom and future success in South Sudan as America was the country which pushed for peace in Sudan. Austin has become home to hundreds of South Sudanese refugees, who escaped the civil war that killed over 2.5 million. Santino Deng says it well: “We came to the U.S. to save our country, but America gave us so much more. It gave us opportunities to follow our dreams and skills to now return and help bring peace.” Email me if you are interested or with any questions or comments.

Daniel Mueller has worked at Austin High School as an EL History Teacher, traveled to many countries and lived overseas for many years. He is passionate about learning about other cultures and bringing multicultural unity through understanding and education. He can be reached at dan_mueller20@yahoo.com or through Facebook at Multicultural Austin.