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Lietnhom is a small village situated on the River Jur in southern Sudan that is made up of members of the Dinka tribe. Just 18 months ago, the village was filled with the charred remains of market stalls rather than market goods after a clash between clans devastated the town and displaced residents.
Five Talents is working in Lietnhom with a consortium of partners, including the Episcopal Church of Sudan, to establish a village bank and provide business skills training to beginning entrepreneurs. Thomas is a project officer, and through the trainings he leads, entrepreneurs are learning how to save and use money and how to start and manage a small business. On Nov. 7, he’ll be sharing this story at the Five Talents 10th Anniversary Celebration Dinner in Arlington, Va.
In May of this year, Five Talents joined the celebration held in the village of Lietnhom to dedicate the Amat Wuot Community Bank, the first village bank in southern Sudan. “Amat wuot” literally means “a union of communities” in Dinka, the local language.
“My hope for southern Sudan is to see sustainable development and lasting peace,” said Thomas. “I have a heart for the people of southern Sudan. I want them to be really transformed, to come out of poverty. We have been in war for all these years, and this is our chance to rebuild our own lives.”
Due to decades of war, entire generations did not have the opportunity to attend school. It is estimated that 80 percent of south Sudanese cannot read or write. Therefore, this multi-layered program has introduced literacy, business planning, savings and credit training and small business development into the Lietnhom community.
“The local church is working in a practical way to help its people and its communities come out of a desperate situation,” Cole said. “The church is carrying out its mission of reconciliation in a profound way.”
Thomas, who is leading these entrepreneurs, can fully relate to the struggles they have survived. He has experienced – first-hand and on more than one occasion – the ravages of war and conflict in his home country.
His Early Life
Thomas was born in 1980 in Aweil, Sudan, and is the fourth born of nine brothers and sisters. In 1983, Sudan’s president, Gaafar Muhammad Nimeiri, declared that Sudan would become a Muslim state and that sharia law would be the law of the land. In response John Garang, a Dinka from Southern Sudan, formed the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to resist the government. In 1986, when Thomas was 6, this conflict reached his village.
Thomas and one of his brothers fled their home and walked across Sudan to Ethiopia as a part of a group that became known as “The Lost Boys of Sudan.” In the height of Sudan’s 21-year civil war, more than 27,000 boys were separated from their families as they escaped a deliberate campaign of annihilation and ethnic cleansing by successive regimes in Khartoum, which, if successful would prevent these young boys from growing up and joining the SPLA. Boys as young as 5 trekked across the Sudan’s vast tropical and desert lands to Ethiopia in order to find safety and basic survival in a refugee camp. During the trek, children were forced to swim across a branch of the Nile River, and each night they faced attacks by lions, hyenas and other wild animals. Thomas was one of these boys.
“I believe in this world some people pass through water and some people pass through fire. Me, I grew up in a very tough place,” Thomas said.
Tragically, Thomas’ brother died in Ethiopia, and when Thomas eventually made it back to Aweil, he found that his parents as well as an older brother had been killed in the civil war. This war, which lasted from 1983 until 2005, ultimately claimed the lives of 1.9 million civilians and displaced another 4 million.
With the hope of revenge for the killing of family members, Thomas joined the SPLA as a soldier. But, God had different plans for him. In 1989, Thomas began reading the Bible.
“It really changed my life,” he said. “In Matthew 5:44-45 Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies! And pray for those who persecute you that you will be acting as true children of your father in heaven.’” It was through this study that he says, “Jesus showed me a different way.”
Arriving in Kenya
In 1994, Thomas was able to leave the army. He then traveled with an orphan he brought from Aweil to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. He attended school while in Kakuma and was part of a church opening in 1997. (Kakuma is the Swahili word for nowhere, epitomizing the seclusion of the area.)
During his time at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, Thomas came across four more children who were from his home area, but who were without their parents. “I found myself in the middle of nowhere with them, and I said just come and stay with me, whatever I have to eat we will eat together.” And, with that, Thomas took these children in as his own.
He eventually moved to Nakuru, Kenya, where he gained formalized Bible training and began working with Bishop Henry Riak who was stationed in Nakuru because of the insecurity of his home area – the Diocese of Wau. In 2001, Thomas was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church of Sudan by Bishop Riak, and in 2006, he was ordained as a priest. Over these years, Thomas has had the opportunity to return to Aweil to open churches in Aweil West County.
It was January 2005 when the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between north and south Sudan marked the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War, which had lasted more than 20 years. An estimated two million people were killed and four million displaced during this civil war. In comparison, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and another 2.7 million forced from their homes since violence erupted in 2003, according to the United Nations.
With the renewed hope for peace in his country, he recalls thinking, “What can I do in Kenya if I can’t help my people in southern Sudan? I am doing nothing.”
Returning to Sudan
This journey to once again return to his home country and to help his people began in May 2007. It was then that Thomas was selected by Bishop Riak to represent the Diocese of Wau at a Christian Economic Development Institute in Nakuru, Kenya – a 10-day training course organized and sponsored by Five Talents.
“I said what can I do to make sure we implement this program in Sudan?” Thomas asked after attending the training.
In December 2007, the Bishop asked Thomas to travel with Five Talents to Lietnhom, which is in the same region as his home area of Aweil. His visit to the program was a turning point for Five Talents and Thomas. The keen understanding of the community and communication skills that Thomas displayed during this trip earned him an invitation to begin a fellowship with Five Talents.
In early 2008, Thomas began working alongside a project manager to develop his skills in project management, development and training.
“I believe that God has given everyone talents,” Thomas said. “I encourage the groups, and we share the word of God together.”
In the spring of 2008, conflict once again broke out in Lietnhom when rival clans clashed violently over disputes about cattle. However, members of both clans had accounts at the village bank, a concrete structure with a safe that held $4,000 of members’ savings. The bank was untouched. Resilient residents returned and were able to rebuild businesses with loans from the village bank.
“The idea that a bank could bring together a community is a compelling story,” said Craig Cole, Five Talents President and CEO. “To think that economic development is happening in an isolated village is awe inspiring.”
Now, there are more than 460 members and savings of $12,000 in the village bank. Thomas is witnessing how this village bank is bringing hope and opportunity to Lietnhom, a village now rising from the ashes of regional conflicts that occurred just 18 months ago.
“We are making disciples along with microcredit,” Thomas said.
In early 2009, Thomas took over the Lietnhom project area as a project officer, where he provides business and discipleship training for the village savings and loans project.
“I have a great hope for the Lietnhom people,” he said. “They are talking of concrete buildings. They want to change the system. Many people are now asking to borrow these ideas,” he said. In an area that suffered the uncertainty of civil war for 20 years, this type of thinking and hope is a big change.
And the five small children that Thomas cared for in Kakuma? They are still his children, and he is their single father. They are now teenagers and live in Nakuru, Kenya, where they can attend a secondary school. During his absences, they are cared for by the wife of a cousin. With the income Thomas earns, he pays for their school fees and visits whenever he has leave from his work in Sudan.
“There has been a long time of suffering, but what can we do now to change?” he asks. “We need to be transformed; we need to move to next level. There is a big, bright future for tomorrow and for the generations coming. We are now in peace and with Five Talents, together, we are trying to create a better world.” “I believe with God all things are possible,” Thomas said.
Established in 1999, Five Talents provides funding for business training and thousands of loans, ranging from $50 to $300, across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each loan finances a microbusiness that, in turn, supports up to nine other people. A majority of the loan recipients are women. Five Talents is based in Vienna, Va., with an office in London, England. For more information, visit http://www.fivetalents.org/.
