By Kevin Graman
November 17, 2006

Nearly 18 years after fleeing repression in Ethiopia, Agwa Taka is bringing back to his native land something he found in Spokane – hope.

Taka is leaving Sunday with suitcases full of toys and a plan to furnish and staff a small orphanage he and his friend, fellow Ethiopian refugee Akway Omot built in Gambella, Ethiopia, this past summer. Accompanying Taka will be Omot's wife, Achol Aballa and Andrew Lewis, a Spokane man who ran a tent city in Mississippi for U.S. refugees displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Like Taka, who came to the United States in 1989, Omot and Aballa are Anuak tribal people from the Gambella region in southeastern Ethiopia. The three are among about 20 Anuak who have found freedom and friendship in Spokane. But they can't enjoy the comfort of their adopted nation while the existence of their tribe is in question.

"We understand now that the reason we came here was to be a voice for our people, to give our hearts to the Anuak," Taka said.

It will be the third trip to Africa for Taka, who survived a Sudanese refugee camp only to miss an airline connection in Chicago and ended up in Spokane. Taka works for the First Presbyterian Church, which sponsored him and other Anuak refugees.

Through Taka, the story of a persecuted farming people in the lowlands of impoverished east Africa has become a Spokane story, as the community responds to the Anuak's plight.

Earlier this year, when Taka asked Lewis to come to Gambella, the 23-year-old former AmeriCorps volunteer and 2004 graduate of Eastern Washington University, jumped at the chance.

"I said this is what I want to do with the rest of my life anyway, and these are my friends," said Lewis. "So how cool is that, to help friends out."

In fact, his whole family is making the trip, including his parents Jack and Cheryl Lewis, who have long supported refugee relief efforts in Spokane and abroad.

While Andrew Lewis helps get the orphanage organized, his younger brother, Ben, packing six donated laptop computers, will coordinate information technology in Gambella. His first step will be finding consistent Internet access.

"We don't want to dump a lot of Western technology on them," Andrew Lewis said, "but we want to give (the Anuak) the tools to communicate and get the word out about themselves."

The two brothers and a friend set up and ran the tent camp in Pass Christian, Miss., from September 2005 to April 2006. Their role in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts were documented in a January story in The Spokesman-Review.

The Pearson Foundation is a proud sponsor of The Anuak Baare Hope Project (ABHP). ABHP is howling for caring! Click here to get involve

After leaving AmeriCorps, Andrew Lewis went to work for the Pearson Foundation. The philanthropic group is now contributing in fundraising for Anuak relief.

Meanwhile, the Lewises' sister and brother-in-law, Kristin and Kevin Lehman, will be establishing a small community library in Gambella. Another sister, Beth, a Central Washington University student, hopes to tutor the Anuak.

While Taka and the rest of the Lewis family will stay in Ethiopia only a few weeks, Andrew Lewis plans to stay "as long as it takes" to get things up and running in Gambella.

Anuak suffer from ethnic strife

» The Anuak people of Ethiopia have been the victims of numerous human rights violations by the Ethiopian National Defense Force in the Gambella region of southwestern Ethiopia, according to international human rights groups.

» The worst incident occurred on Dec. 13, 2003, when the ambush and murder of eight refugee workers, likely by armed Anuak bandits, sparked a three-day rampage against the Anuak in Gambella by elements of the Ethiopian National Defense Force and a mob of "highlanders," lighter-skinned settlers from northwestern Ethiopia, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

» More than 425 Anuak, mostly educated men and boys over the age of 16 were shot or hacked to death, according to the report. Homes were burned, and women were raped. Many were infected with HIV in a part of the world where AIDS is used as a weapon.

» The Anuak have long suffered from ethnic strife in Gambella, which began when the previous regime, a military junta known as the Derg, forced the relocation of 60,000 highlanders into the Anuak homeland. At the same time, civil war in Sudan forced thousands of refugees into the region.

» The Derg government was overthrown in 1991, but there have been continued ethnic tensions in Gambella, where the Anuak now find themselves in the minority, according to Human Rights Watch. The new government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has coveted Gambella for its fertile land, gold and oil. The military, attempting to root out armed Anuak groups in Gambella, has forced thousands of refugees into Sudan, according to the report.