Emmanuel Jal also known as the Warchild is a refugee from Sudan. He was born in a war torn Sudan where death and despair were everywhere. At the age of five he watched as his mother was beaten and his aunt was raped. He grew up with hate for Arabs and Muslims.
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Three years later he joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He spent the following three years fighting and watching his friends die around him. When Jal was eleven, his group of four hundred soldiers had diminished to just sixteen. With starvation facing the remaining sixteen some turned to cannibalism. Although tempted to eat his comrades in an attempt to survive he never brought himself to do it.
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At this time, the lowest point in his life, a British aid worker named Emma McCune came to his rescue. She brought Jal to Kenya where he received an education. He realized it wasn’t the Arabs or Muslims as a whole that killed his family, but a handful of corrupt and greedy individuals. With this realization he turned his pent up hate and vengeance into love.
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In 2005 Jal moved to the United Kingdom and began sharing his experiences through music and poetry. He uses rhetoric to build awareness for refugees much as I am trying to in this blog. Jal has committed to eating one meal a day until his aid fund has raised enough money to build a school in Sudan. Since hearing his story, Jal has become one of my personal heroes. I hope that he will move you in the way he has moved me.
What an incredible story, thank you for sharing it. I wish there was a picture included though. It's amazing the power that one determined person can have in the world. That's one of the things I love about the class so far- that we have been given the opportunity to make a difference. The ever-developing technology available (such as the wondrous Facebook) allows us to reach those within our spheres of influence more easily than ever. Through these blogs, Facebook, and other seemingly casual forms of communication, we have so many opportunities to do good. It's incredible.
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