Rebuilding South Sudan

December 29, 2008 (Sioux Falls, SD) -- Going to school without desks or pencils or even a roof overhead seems like something that's hard to imagine, but that was a reality for a Sudanese immigrant, now living in Brookings.

Fleeing on foot for more than year, he escaped to the United States 7 years ago, and now he wants to give others in his homeland a chance for a better life. 

Today he's spending one last church service in South Dakota before traveling thousands of miles to Sudan. 

Giving back to a place he once ran away from is what Moses Joknhial II wanted to do more than anything, giving a chance for others to have a part of what he's had in America. 

“I'm so excited. I can't wait to be there,” says Joknhial. 

Joknial spent his early childhood in a town in South Sudan. When civil war broke he was 9 years old. He came home, found his house burning and fled on foot without his family. 

After making his way to America, he was determined to find a better life. That's why he earned his Electrician degree from Mitchell Tech, Airplane Mechanics degree at Lake Area Tech, and now he's working on his pilot’s license at South Dakota State University. 

That's when he came to Rhonda Morse for help in devising a plan to help rebuild Sudan.

“Initially it was for textbooks and pens and pencils and we realized that was not permanent for those going to school under a tree, they needed a school building,” says Morse. 

And then it was a well for fresh water and a corn grinder so that girls who would normally have to stay home to help grind corn could come to school while the job was done by others. 

“Moses is very focused and dedicated to what he does so when he come with the idea, this is not my expertise but I knew it would happen because we would be there every step of the way,” says Morse. 

So 14 months ago they started working towards their goal. A group in Watertown raised enough money for the well and from there South Dakotans kept giving as quickly as the plans for the new school came together, and tomorrow after all the hard work, Joknhial and Morse will take the next step in making the dream a reality. 

“Someone who used to go to the river will get clean water. Someone never used a corn grinder will use a corn grinder. Someone never went to school is going to school,” says Joknhial.

And as he boards his plane he's knows he will be greeted by those who thank him for making a difference.
 
Joknhial will spend 4 months in Sudan. Morse and Joknhial will also be bringing school bags that were stitched by volunteers, pens and pencils, and letters from American children with them.  He will also visit his father and brother, who he hasn't seen in more than 20 years.