Craig’s list

A woman in Wangulei, Malual-Deng’s home village, transports a bundle of grass to build a new roof for her house. She’ll make the trip, which takes several hours, nine times. The roof will last about two years.

 

Craig Sternagel can still hear the lyrics, “Jesus loves me when I die,” transporting him from Washington, USA, back to South Sudan, where his Land Cruiser bounced through truck-size holes and passed land mine warning signs, and the driver played the song nonstop. The region, once fertile farmland, is a wasteland after years of civil war in which four million people fled and two million died.

Several years ago, Sternagel met former “Lost Boy” Thuch Malual-Deng, who trekked 1,000 miles to Ethiopia and Kenya with his brother, 7, and thousands of other young boys, to escape the bloodshed and conscription as a child soldier. Sternagel, a member of the Rotary Club of Lake Forest Park, Wash., was searching for a personal challenge and a cause. He found both in Malual-Deng, who had made his way to Washington and attended high school with Sternagel’s son, Colin.

To raise funds for Malual-Deng’s village, Sternagel biked across the United States, netting $12,000. He decided to travel to South Sudan to establish reliable local contacts (there are no Rotary clubs there), purchase and deliver supplies rather than shipping them, and assess other needs.

Read about a Lost Boy who became a Rotarian.