John Dau
| John Dau (Dhieu-Deng Leek) | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Dhieu-Deng Leek January 15, 1974 Sudan |
| Residence | Syracuse, New York |
| Nationality | American/Sudanese |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | BA |
| Occupation | President |
| Years active | 6 |
| Employer | John Dau Foundation |
| Known for | Not giving up, strong leadership |
| Height | 6'8" |
| Weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Title | Hon. |
| Board member of | many |
| Children | Agot, Leek and Akur |
| Awards | 56 |
| Website | John Dau Foundation |
John Dau, also known as Dhieu-Deng Leek, is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who was featured in the 2006 award-winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us. Today, he is a father himself and a human rights activist for the people of South Sudan. In 2007, he founded the John Dau Foundation which aims to transform healthcare in South Sudan.
Dau was born into the Dinka tribe in war-torn Sudan. In 1987, his village of Duk Payuel in Duk County, Jonglei was attacked by government troops involved in the Second Sudanese Civil War between the Muslim-controlled government in northern Sudan and the non-Muslims in Southern Sudan. The violence scattered his family, and Dau was forced to travel on foot for three months until reaching the relative safety of Ethiopia.
"There was a lot of problems mounting on us," Dau told The 700 Club, "including starvation, thirst, the fear of being killed by other local people or the wild animals. The very difficult situation was the lack of water."
Dau stayed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia for four years, but when civil war broke out in the region, he was once again forced to flee. As one of thousands of “Lost Boys of Sudan,” Dau wandered hundreds of miles and faced disease, starvation, animal attacks and violence, until arriving in Kenya. While living in the Kenyan Kakuma refugee camp, he attended school for the first time and sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam in 2000. In 2001, he was one of 3,800 young Sudanese refugees resettled in the United States and one of 140 young people brought to Syracuse, New York.
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