Portrait: Amal Athieu
For 15 years Amal Athieu did not have a country to call home.

Forced out of Sudan in 1987 when he was just 8, Amal spent his youth in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, getting by at times on just one meal every other day. In fleeing the fighting and persecution, Athieu became a part of one of the world’s most famous groups of refugees—the Lost Boys.

Amal began his journey in the cattle fields of his village. When Janjaweed soldiers burst upon his tribe, he and other children fled the violence and lived in the wild for months as they sought safety and protection.

Eventually they found his way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, where trees were their only shelter for months during the rainy season. When the United Nations brought shelter to the camp, Amal shared a tent with 11 people for six months.

In 1991 Amal and his friends had to flee again. They were playing soccer when Ethiopian rebels attacked the camp. “We saw people running and we were wondering what [was] wrong, There were rebels beating people and telling people to move out of this camp.” Some were shot as they tried to cross the Gilo River. Others were drowned by the raging current or killed by crocodiles hunting in the water.

But Amal survived again, eventually making his way to another refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, where he lived from 1992 until 2001.

In 2001 the U.S. government approved Amal for resettlement in the United States, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service helped him begin his new life in a new land. Eager to succeed in America, Amal began diligently working and taking classes. He earned an associate’s degree in business administration in 2006, is currently pursuing a bachelor’s in government and politics, and hopes eventually to get a law degree.

Amal is grateful to be alive and thriving in the United States. He shares his blessings with others, sending money to support his family in Uganda and operating a small nonprofit organization to bring hope to his homeland.

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