Patrons who turn out for an evening of jazz at a fundraiser May 22 will be helping to build a library in a community in the Sudan that once was home to "Lost Boys" who grew up in Fargo-Moorhead.
The "book bash," which includes a silent auction of donated artwork, will raise money for a library in Panijiar County, an area of southern Sudan that is 95 percent undeveloped and has a literacy rate of 1 percent.
The Panijiar County Development Services - a non-profit organization headquartered in Fargo-Moorhead that goes by the acronym PACODES - is working to build the library in a remote region of the Sudan.
The region is home to refugee boys who fled on foot to escape civil war in the 1980s, the so-called "Lost Boys" of the Sudan, including some who were resettled in Fargo-Moorhead in 2001.
"We all feel passionate about helping people in Africa," one of the local "Lost Boys," Justin Machien Luoi, formerly of Fargo, said Tuesday. Now in graduate school at the University of North Dakota, he serves on the PACODES board.
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The nonprofit already has plans for a $20,000 library, and collected hundreds of donated books. PACODES now is working with Better World Books, which specializes in getting books to Africa, and the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental organization active in the Sudan.
A PACODES fundraising walk was held earlier this month in Chicago, where a documentary film team that is making a film on the library project is based. More fundraising walks are planned for Peoria, Ill., as well as Fargo and Minneapolis.
"This idea for PACODES is catching on with people who want to get involved," Hammerling said. "It's really been exciting."
After the fundraising events, organizers will meet to decide on a schedule for the library building project, which faces logistical challenges involving obtaining building supplies and transportation of the supplies, given the remoteness of the region, west of the Nile River in southern Sudan.
The Panijiar community lacks electricity, but PACODES is exploring sustainable energy possibilities to be implemented in the library, including solar power and laptops that can be powered by hand cranks.
If you go
- What: Book Bash for Panijiar
- When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., May 22
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- Where: Ramada Plaza Suites, Fargo
- Info: Tickets, $25 in advance and $35 at the door, are available at Hornbacher's. Proceeds will help build a library in the Sudan.
- How to help: Donations also can be made online: www.pacodes.org
Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522
