Seattle, U.S.A. — As he prepares for his Olympic Summer Games qualifying heat on Wednesday, August 8 th in the men’s 5,000 meter, former Sudan Lost Boy Lopez Lomong is also focused on children living in poverty back home in South Sudan.

After London, whether he medals or not, the U.S. Olympian is hoping to return to Africa. The trip, tentatively scheduled for January, 2013, is part of long-term partnership between Lomong’s non-profit, 4South Sudan and Team World Vision, a program sponsored by international Christian charity World Vision. Lomong’s group is dedicated to helping raise $500,000 to provide access to clean water, health care, education and nutrition.

According to the latest United Nations (UNHCR) estimates, there are more than 660,000 displaced South Sudanese as fighting rages between Sudan and its neighbor, South Sudan. Malaria and diarrhea run rampant in the overcrowded refugee camps. Nearly three children die of preventable illnesses in the camps every day.

At the age of six, Lopez was kidnapped from his Southern Sudan village and held captive as he was being prepped as a child soldier. Too small to undergo training, his fate would most likely have been starvation. But he managed to escape with the help of three other captives. After running three days and nights, they were captured by Kenyan troops and brought to a refugee camp where Lopez lived for 10 years.

He was sponsored by a U.S. family and brought to this country where he soon discovered he was the fastest kid in school. At track meets he then discovered he was the fastest in the state. Soon he would become one of the fastest in the nation.

In 2008, Lomong qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the men’s 1,500 meters. He was voted by his teammates as the flag bearer in the Opening Ceremonies.

Lomong has a new book entitled “Running For My Life” (Thomas Nelson Publisher) http://www.thomasnelson.com/running-for-my-life.html

Image Courtesy of  sidelife

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The Hague, Netherland – The Judges of Trial Chamber II sentenced convicted former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor to a term of 50 years in prison for planning and for aiding and abetting crimes committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone during the country’s decade-long civil war.

The Trial Chamber, comprised of Justice Richard Lussick of Samoa (Presiding), Justice Teresa Doherty of Northern Ireland, and Justice Julia Sebutinde of Uganda, unanimously imposed the single global sentence for all 11 counts of the crimes for which Mr. Taylor was convicted. These included acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, other inhumane acts, conscripting or enlisting of child soldiers, enslavement and pillage.

Justice Lussick, who read out the judgment in court, said the Trial Chamber found that Mr. Taylor’s abuse of his position as President of Liberia to aid and abet the commission of crimes in Sierra Leone, and the abuse of his position as a member of the ECOWAS Committee of Five (later Six), which was “part of the process relied on by the international community to bring peace to Sierra Leone,” was “an aggravating factor of great weight.”

The Judges also cited the extra-territoriality of Mr. Taylor’s acts, and his exploitation of the Sierra Leone conflict for financial gain, as aggravating factors considered in the sentencing.

The Judges took into account the report of Mr. Taylor’s good conduct in detention, but otherwise rejected a number of mitigating factors proposed by the Defense.

While the jurisprudence of the Special Court and other tribunals “holds that aiding and abetting as a mode of liability generally warrants a lesser sentence than that imposed for more direct forms of participation,” Justice Lussick said that Mr. Taylor’s leadership role “puts him in a class of his own.”

“The Trial Chamber wishes to underscore the gravity it attaches to Mr. Taylor’s betrayal of the public trust,” Justice Lussick said. “In the Trial Chamber’s view, this betrayal outweighs the distinctions that might otherwise pertain to the modes of liability discussed above.”`

The parties, if they intend to appeal, must submit written notice to the Appeals Chamber within 14 days of the sentencing judgment, setting forth the grounds of their appeal.

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Uganda: Millions of Americans are expected to participate in the “Cover the Night” activities outlined in the viral video phenomenon, Kony2012. Christian aid group World Vision released a video warning that, while now-infamous warlord Joseph Kony no longer threatens Ugandan communities, invisible killers continue to stalk the nation’s children – killers with far more reach than Kony’s army, even at its worst.

The violence executed by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was maniacal in its brutality. The LRA targeted innocents, abducting children and forcing them to commit inhumane acts of brutality, often against their own families, before using them as child soldiers in its military campaign. While human toll is hard to calculate, during the early 2000s, an estimated 120 to 150 people died every day as a direct result of the LRA conflict, particularly due to conditions in the squalid displacement camps where many fled to avoid LRA attack.

The LRA left Uganda in 2006, and the millions affected by the war have since been rebuilding their lives after a generation of war. But as they do, poverty-related diseases like malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition continue to kill hundreds of Ugandan children every day. Some 4% of infants in Uganda die in their first year of life; 9% die before the age of five.

“I experienced Kony’s violence myself,” said James Odong, who was abducted by the LRA at the age of 19. “I saw children killed – their lives tragically cut short. Today, hundreds of Uganda’s children were taken by the invisible killers of malaria, malnutrition and diarrhea. These deaths aren’t violent, but each loss is tragic.” Odong now serves as World Vision’s associate director for peace building.

During the conflict, World Vision provided counseling and support to former child soldiers through its Children of War Rehabilitation Program. Outside of Uganda, World Vision offices carried out extensive advocacy campaigns to raise awareness and political support for a peaceful end to the conflict.

Now that peace has returned to Uganda, World Vision’s community development programs – funded by the sponsorships of thousands of children in Uganda – continue to help provide anti-malarial bed nets, clean water systems, rehydration treatment, nutritional education, agricultural training and many more initiatives to combat these silent killers – each and every day.

All of these killers are easily prevented and easily treated with the right resources. Extreme poverty keeps most of these children’s families from accessing the preventative care and treatment they need, but with the support of groups like World Vision and others, many of these families are gaining access to lifesaving resources.

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