My trip to Uganda is now underway. I am going to Bweyale Refugee Camp to make a general assessment of the situation there. I will meet with leaders of the refugees to talk about their needs and to assess the children’s educational needs from pre-school to 12^th grade. I need to know which agencies are working in education in the camp, what they are doing, and how I can partner with them. I will meet with three groups of leaders: Sudanese refugees (Dinka, Nuer, and others); local Ugandan civil authorities in the camp; and officials from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).I am going to Kampala to register as a local organization in Uganda. I will register as Living Hope Africa, which will function as the local arm of Africa Sunrise Communities. Fundraising in the U.S. will continue to flow through Africa Sunrise Communities. A local organization gives me freedom to do work in Uganda as a US-based one will not allow me to work there.In Nairobi I will be visiting the family of refugees whom I am supporting.I will go to Juba, South Sudan, to learn about four orphaned Dinka children from my village of Bor. Their parents were killed during a conflict in Bor; they were abducted by the Murle tribe but handed back to the UNHCR during negotiations. The UN contacted me to see if I could support these children, who are in a UN refugee camp in Juba: one 5-year old, two 6-year-olds, and one 7-year-old.I will be helped by Lual, who is my cousin. He lives in Juba and knows how help me negotiate the various officials and departments I must meet with.Please pray for me during this trip, that I might be able to meet with the right people and make the right contacts, and that the next steps for Africa Sunrise Communities/Living Hope Africa will become clear.My trip to Uganda will cost approximately $7,500. This will take care of airfare, food, lodging, and ground transportation, visas, organization registration fees, etc. If you can help me meet these financial obligations, please send a check to Africa Sunrise Communities, PO Box 82, Wilmore, KY 40390 or visit our website at www.africasunrise.org/get-involved/ to give towards my trip. All gifts are tax deductible. Thank you for your prayers and your financial support.Jacob GuotExecutive Director and Founder

On the weekend of July 23-24, 2016, Jacob Guot visited the First United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was accompanied by his whole family – his wife, Rebecca, his son Biar (7), his daughter Angieth (6), and his son Ayiei (nearly 3). Pastor Joe DiPaolo and the congregation of the church welcomed the Guot family warmly and gave them the opportunity to tell their story.Jacob was privileged to preach in the three Sunday morning services and the church held a reception for the family after the services. Jacob also visited some individual members of the congregation and was invited to meet with the Missions Committee of the church.A reception was held for the Guot family after the services and Jacob presented a recognition certificate to Pastor Joe DiPaolo for the church. Pictured is Rev. Jacob Guot with FUMC Pastor Joe DiPaolo with the congregation during the reception.Jacob told the story of his being forced to flee for his life as a 7-year-old boy. Through God’s hand of protection upon him, he grew up in a refugee camp and then was brought to the United States as one of South Sudan’s “lost boys” in 2001. He subsequently became an American citizen, learned English, and obtained an education. With his recent graduation from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, Jacob is now going to work to provide for his family.But his heart for South Sudan has led him to establish his non-profit organization, Africa Sunrise Communities, through which he is endeavoring to raise enough funds to take him and his family to Uganda to work inside a large South Sudanese refugee camp there. Jacob wants to give the children of the camp an education to give them hope for their own lives and to give his country of South Sudan a future.Will you help Jacob to bring hope and reconciliation to South Sudanese refugee children in Uganda? Please give generously to this effort. All gifts are tax-deductible. Yours truly,ASC Founder and President,Jacob Guot

 Two recent articles from the Sudan Tribune newspaper tell of worsening violence and the dire need for food among people in South Sudan.On February 17^, 2016, one of the articles described the urgent need for food for 86,000 people in two counties of Jonglei state in South Sudan. Officials from the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) reported that an assessment of conditions among returnees and among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) indicated that the people needed both food and non-food support. The RRC organizations were urged to act swiftly in light of the plight of these thousands of people.James Jok, the state acting RRC director, said that he organized a meeting of RRC humanitarian organizations to assign each agency specific roles to intervene in curbing hunger and in developing a comprehensive strategy for aid. He also urged the South Sudanese government to provide needed infrastructure, especially health facilities and schools.Agencies say that over two million people were displaced during the 21-month-old conflict, which broke out in the world’s youngest nation upon its establishment in mid-December 2013.The second article, dated February 16^th, described renewed clashes in South Sudan’s Wau state between the army and the armed opposition faction. Hundreds of people have been forced to flee from their homes, residents and eyewitnesses have said.The incident took place in the western part of the state capital, Besilia, forcing hundreds of people, mainly women and children, to seek food and shelter elsewhere. According to multiple residents who arrived in Wau town on Sunday, people on both sides of the conflict participated in burning huts to the ground. The most affected areas were Abushaka, Kapi and Safa, initially suspected by government forces to be opposition-held territories.The armed confrontation between the two main warring parties came a day after a delegation of ceasefire monitors arrived in Wau town to access the security situation in the region. The armed opposition leader in Wau state denied that their forces were the first to attack government troops in the specified areas.We urge our Africa Sunrise Community supporters to pray for the needs of the refugees and displaced persons and for the hostilities in South Sudan to cease and the ceasefire to be observed. Also, Bweyale refugees in Uganda have expressed their fears concerning the scheduled elections now going on. They need prayer particularly for peace.  Read the Sudan Tribune Articles Here:86,000 Urgently Need Food in Jonglei State

New IOM clinic provides critical care for displaced in Upper Nile

It seems South Sudan hasn’t seen peace since the creation of Adam and Eve. Its inhabitants may never see peace anytime soon, unless people of good conscience and benevolence would step in and help the most overlooked humans in the world. This part of the world has lost at least three generations to illiteracy due a deep-rooted civil war that started in the 1950’s as the result of oppression from the former Sudanese government of Arab Muslims.Nevertheless, South Sudan fought for decades and earned her long overdue independence from the north in 2011. Though free of its rule, there is still evidence that reveals the continuing influence of the largely Muslim country to the north. Influential elites from Sudan are determined to cause strife between southern tribes, which would allow them to seize power again. For more than 60 years, the north has tried to convert the Christian communities in South Sudan by force.This is the situation in which we at Africa Sunrise Communities (ASC) are dedicated to bringing peace. Through farming projects and education of all young South Sudanese irrespective of their tribes, we will foster reconciliation and restoration.The latest report from UN’s Refugee Agency has reported that a huge number of people have fled to the refugee camps mainly in Uganda as a result of renewed fighting in South Sudan. These refugees are women and children that have been uprooted from their country as a result of serious insecurity. They are literally running for their lives, leaving everything they own behind and living in camps with nothing.In these camps, they wait for food from the UN, which is scant and lacking in nutrition. The children are unable to receive education without funding. This is where Africa Sunrise Communities will be working to fill the gaps by providing gardening plots to encourage teamwork between tribes as well as a sustainable source of food. As we work to reconcile the older generations, we will educate the younger to raise up a generation that it educated and invested in bettering their country together.Written by Gabriel KwaiTreasurer and Board Member