The lost boys are home in Iowa. Jennifer Gibson with the Refugee Cooperative Ministry says Iowa’s the new home to some of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan.The Lost Boys were taken from their families before they were ten years old and pressed into military service in Sudan’s civil war and up to 4000 of them just left. For more than ten years the huge group of orphaned boys wandered homeless, taking care of each other and at times living in refugee camps. Gibson says 400 were finally brought to this country and some wound up in Des Moines, learning a new life. They get ESL classes and job training and many of those who’ve come have found jobs and are getting familiar with their new home. They won’t move back to Sudan, and though there’s no saying they’ll stay in Des Moines, they’re permanent residents of the U-S and many are working towards citizenship. She calls it a gift, because they bring Iowa things that are new, from their tragic past escaping war and death. Refugee Cooperative Ministry is a joint service of Lutheran Social Service of Iowa and Catholic Charities.
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