As I look into the future, I see so much more work I can do to help in Southern Sudan. The civil war finally ended with a comprehensive peace agreement between the north and south in January 2005, just about the time Martha and I were married. Life in Southern Sudan began to return to normal—or as normal as can be after a war that killed more than 2 million people and forced millions of others out of their homes forever. But of course there is still an enormous amount of work to do to bring prosperity back to Southern Sudan.
In addition to the clinic, I also have plans for opening something called the Southern Sudan Institute. It will combine a school for agriculture, a peace and reconciliation center, and a library. To stock the library, I already have received donations of thousands of books from a charity called the International Book Bank. The reconciliation center will promote peace, and the agricultural school will teach people how to cultivate crops. Those who were born after the start of the civil war in 1983 probably did not get much education about how to grow food and need to learn that skill scientifically.
I do these things because I have benefited so much from my life in America and I want to share that goodness with my homeland. I want to help make a better future for Southern Sudan and particularly for the Dinka.
I have gotten a lot of help from many generous Americans. Christopher Quinn’s film won a major prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and appeared all over the country in movie theaters the following year. Many who saw the movie donated money, volunteered time, or otherwise helped ease the suffering of the Lost Boys and Girls. The executive producer of God Grew Tired of Us and his wife gave my foundation a big donation. I did not know who they were when I met them, but I do now: American actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.