Julia Duany speaks to Angola Middle School students on Monday. Photo by Andy Barrand

Duany shows it doesn't take much to help others
By Colleen Anspaugh, Senior Reporter
[This article was sent to SSFI without the name of the newspaper, which apparently serves Angola, Indiana]
 
The check Angola Middle School eighth graders gave to Julia Duany Monday [May 15, 2000] morning wasn't huge but it will make a big difference in the lives of residents in the south of the Sudan.

"You will be feeding an entire village with this check," said Duany. She and her family fled the African country years ago as the north and south battled for control of the divided nation. Duany said $20 would purchase enough seeds to plant to feed 15 or 20 people.

The eighth graders collected money, held a bake sale and painted faces. They turned over $84.73 to Duany. "We felt the need to help other people, who aren't as fortunate," said Tana Babcock, one of the eighth graders who directed the fund raising along with Liz Ball and Cassie Rose. "It's kind of sad that there are still people who live like that."

The family fled the Sudan after Julia Duany's husband was jailed for his resistance to the government imposed by the north. He is currently back in the south of Sudan writing a constitution it is hoped will eventually unite the country where more than 2 million people have been killed.

The family eventually settled in Bloomington where Julia Duany teaches cultural classes at Indiana University. The name may be familiar to basketball fans because eldest son Duany Duany plays at the University of Wisconsin, along with former Angola standout Charlie Wills. Three other children also are playing college basketball while one more is a high school player. "I didn't envision the basketball part," Julia Duany said. "What I envisioned was education (for my children)."

Duany's visit to Angola Middle School was spurred by studies there. "We brought her here to bring us up to date on the persecution that is going on in the world," teacher Joe Kennedy told the students.

"Here you take everything for granted," she told the students. "Everything is on the tip of your hand. That is not the situation in other parts of the world, she said. "You may find kids going naked, nothing at all, not even a piece of blanket to cover them.” The people might go without food for five to 10 days, with only water from Nile to drink."My being here is actually to educate and energize the young people," Duany said.

Duany traced the woes in the Sudan back to colonialism in the late 1880s. The north, with Egyptian and Arabian influences, became Islamic. The south, with its missionary influence, became Christian. Eventually the north became more developed with schools, hospitals and infrastructure. “The south was neglected and everything left in the hands of missionaries," she said. Education was sufficient to read the Bible, and only bush clinics remained for medical care. The north took over the southern part of the country when the English eventually left and outside forces continue to jockey for control of the water of the Nile. Islamic rule was rejected by the Christian south.

The south is rich in resources, Duany said, including fertile farmland, papyrus, oil, gold, iron and wildlife. “The Nile itself is a treasure," she said. There was peace briefly from 1972 to1983 but since then fighting has resumed. The Duany family came to the United States in 1984.

"Right here in Angola you can make a lot of changes by contact with congress, with churches, with other help organizations," she said.